Nzinga Oneferua-El faced the greatest tragedy of her entire life and found a silver lining.
Sixteen years ago, her fiance was murdered by a youth in the same neighborhood of the school that she now works with. “The day after the murder, I had a spiritual vision about what I was supposed to do,” said the mother of four. “I had to say to myself, ‘Sure, you can hate him, but what are you doing to help these kids?’ And the answer was, not very much.”
Oneferua-El now runs the Entrepreneur Training University Community School, working to change beliefs, attitudes, values and actions in city schools. She works with students for violence prevention, entrepreneurship, faith healing and family engagement at the Lake Clifton Campus in Northeast Baltimore.
“Everything that happens has a reason behind it, no matter how tragic it is,” she said. “Ultimately, things happen in our lives for us to be able to reach out to others and talk about overcoming.”
Oneferua-El is one of two recipients of the B’MORE Fund award, an annual monetary gift from the B’MORE Fund, a giving circle in Baltimore City that highlights the work of social entrepreneurs in the region.
“We look for the unsung heroes in the community, the people who are making a difference under the radar screen,” said Sharon Seal, co-chairwoman of the Fund. “The folks we’ve given awards to have started endeavors in their homes, or in basements.”
One such endeavor was B-Spirit A2Y, a mentoring and tutoring program founded by Nargas Hyman, who also received the B’MORE Fund award. “When I started, I wanted to keep my son and his friends off the streets,” said Hyman, who resides in Park Heights. “A lot of his friends would come over to my grandmother’s house. There were 30 kids here every day. So I started a homework center.”
What began as a simple tutoring session in her grandmother’s basement grew into B-Spirit A2Y, an after-school program that centers on homework help, health, drug and sex education, and empowerment for at-risk youth year-round.
What’s great about this award is that it doesn’t have to be used on the recipient’s endeavors, Seal said. “They each get a $5,000 award, and they can do with it whatever they please. What makes the B’MORE Fund a little different is that we target individuals. We really want to spotlight those people who sort of toil behind the scenes.”
