Selfless Service: VOOM Ambassadors embody Aggie Core Values

With over 95% of its population lacking access to medical services, Nigeria has a severe deficiency in medical care. In 2004, Dr. Vincent Ohaju founded the Vincent Obioma Ohaju Memorial, or VOOM, Foundation to combat this inequity in memory of his father, who died from a condition that could have been easily treated if he wasn’t in Nigeria. 

Texas A&M VOOM Ambassadors is the student arm of that non-profit. With the addition of a chapter at the University of North Texas, the VOOM Foundation now has two university chapters fundraising and assisting with advocacy efforts.

Neuroscience sophomore and VOOM Ambassadors treasurer Lucy Abu joined because she could relate to Ohaju’s loss. With most of her family residing in Nigeria, Abu is familiar with the losses inequitable healthcare access can cause. 

“Every time I get on a call with them, I feel like I hear bad news because health education [there] is not the same as it is in the United States,” Abu said. “It’s just not accessible. I’ve lost family members due to things that could have been treated here, that could have been prevented here.” 

While VOOM does provide general health services, they prioritize funding and performing open-heart surgeries. With 41 of these surgery missions under their belt, VOOM says their work accounts for 17% of open-heart surgeries in Nigeria. 

One of these operations costs $2,500, and each semester, A&M VOOM Ambassadors aims to save four lives by raising $10,000. This year and last year, the organization not only met that goal but surpassed it, raising a total of $25,000. 

The group achieves their fundraising success through hosted events, such as a 5k and a pickleball tournament they’re organizing on April 12, and their Aggies Got Heart campaign, which just saw its third year of success. 

By partnering with a different organization on campus each week, neuroscience senior and President Anna Sucec aimed to increase awareness and contribute to the Aggie Core Value of Selfless Service. 

“With our large fundraisers, we are trying to get everybody involved,” Sucec said. “With Aggies Got Heart, we were mostly focused on the Texas A&M community.”

This year they partnered with the 12th Can, Latino Medical Student Association, A&M Red Cross Club and Future Aggie Physician Assistants. VOOM also received a grant from Mays Business School’s strategic philanthropy class. 

Their Aggieland partnerships aren’t just limited to fundraising, though. With the collective effort of the Aggie volunteers, TAMU BUILD has constructed four clinics that the VOOM Foundation uses to provide eyecare, outpatient care and other general services. Through these clinics, 3,107 patients have been evaluated and 14,764 pounds of medicine have been dispersed. 

“I’m a believer, as an Aggie, that Aggies are absolutely the best,” VOOM Executive Director Shawn Andaya-Pulliam ‘87 said. “It’s not just me saying it, but it’s proof that young people care very much about what is happening in this world. That is what makes me the most proud about the VOOM Ambassadors. … Kids are actually making choices and putting action behind wanting to help.”

With the help of the Ambassadors, VOOM takes around 5,000 pounds of medication on every trip to Nigeria. This is all ordered, inventoried and packaged by the students who make up the organization. 

Another part of the VOOM foundation’s work is the health fairs it hosts, where Nigerians can get their vitals checked and receive medication if they’re sick. Sucec likened the fairs to an annual physician visit in the United States. 

The Ambassadors have begun making educational pamphlets to be handed out at these fairs as well. The pamphlets include information on women’s health, postpartum depression, signs of pregnancy, how to treat common illnesses like the common cold and malaria and what to do if someone is choking. 

During Andaya-Pulliam’s 2024 visit to Nigeria, she met a 3 and 4-year-old brother and sister waiting to be seen at one of the clinics donated by BUILD. Their mother said that was the first time they had ever seen a doctor. 

Andaya-Pulliam contrasted that experience with the fact that during their first year, a child in the U.S. sees their pediatrician around 10 times. Without that clinic, Andaya-Pulliam believes the Nigerian siblings wouldn’t have seen a doctor until they started suffering from a health consequence.

Abu said  that she knows the work she has done as a VOOM Ambassador is truly meaningful.

“I know that the work that I am doing is helping someone not feel the pain that I feel,” Abu said.