Regina Pacis School Onitsha becomes the world Champion In Technovation

The Regina Pacis Secondary School, Onitsha owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha wins the World Technovation Challenge Competition in the USA yesterday. Having earlier won at the National level, the School proceeded to the International level which brought together students from different parts of the world.

These wonderful daughters of our land who have now become Africa's Golden Girls are namely:

1.Promise Nnalue
2. Jessica Osita
3. Nwabuaku Ossai
4. Adaeze Onuigbo
5. Vivian Okoye
The young world champions who went with the name "Team Save A Soul" are now attracting a worldwide attention in the world's greatest technological hub swept over 2000 competing applications to get to the finals in San Francisco, USA. They won the Challenge with a mobile application called the FD-Detector which they developed to help tackle the Challenge of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria and beyond.

They also applied the robotics and coding insights in solving existential problem of fake drugs.

This Competition aims at engaging the girl-student in solving existential problems with technology.

Technovation is a programme that offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the programming skills they need to become seasoned tech-entrepreneurs and leaders.

115 countries participated in the competition but only 12 teams from all over the world were selected as finalists for the pitch in San Francisco.

Regina Pacis School Onitsha is one of the testimony of the transformational pastoral leadership of the Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev Valerian Okeke who is the Proprietor of the School. The school has undergone a massive and holistic transformation in the last 15 years of the Episcopacy of Archbishop Val Okeke. He rebuilt the School and totally overhauled the academics, civics , ethics and entrepreneurial know-how of the School. He appointed extraordinary young priests to manage the School and so far the young men have not disappointed or deviated from his vision for the School. Starting from Fr Dr Francis Unegbu who laid the foundation for the transformation the School has undergone as the Manager and Director, to Fr Jerome Ezenwelu, it has been an incremental progress towards the realization of the vision of the Archbishop. Based on that solid foundation, Fr Jerome Ezenwelu displayed an extraordinary acumen in delivering the goods. He deployed both managerial and inspirational skills in preparing the students for the challenge. Continuing from his predecessor, initiated this initiative and got the best hands from the Edufun Technik piloted by the wonderful soul in the person of Uche Onwuamaegbu in training the students for this great world challenge, moved through the initial competitions before handing over to Fr Vin Ezeaka who finally accompanied the Golden 'Team Save A Soul' to the finals.

The victory is therefore a testimony of these extraordinary abilities to translate the vision of the Archbishop for the educational excellence of the children of the State.

The young students who proudly raised the Nigerian flag in the USA have really brought honour to fatherland in a Public manifestation that the best materials are found in Nigeria. It is certainly a great image-maker for Nigeria and it is hoped that the Federal Government will reciprocate the patriotism of our young girls and honour them.

In his reaction, the Archbishop congratulates the students and their teachers for the honour to the nation and to Anambra State and the Archdiocese of Onitsha in particular by this singular act. He reiterates that the well formed youths are the best legacy and heritage any society will bequeath to the world. He maintains that no sacrifice is too much in educating our children for it takes a human capital to create other capitals and in turn transform the world. He commends the Anambra State Govt for the partnership with the Church and Civil society in the education of our children and challenge the Federal Government to look in that direction because in the end the students are assets for the entire society.