Get to know Board Members, Tai and Saina Osifade!
Our latest Board recruits, Tai and Saina Osifade, are passionate about caring for orphans and building up leaders around the world who are rooted in the love of Christ!
After meeting in college and both sharing a calling for orphans and adoption, Tai and Saina set out on a journey of faith together. They have now been married for 17 years and are blessed with four children. After adopting their youngest, they both felt the Lord saying, “You’re not done. This is just the beginning of your journey for reaching out to the lost, the broken, and orphans.”
Tai and Saina attend Community Church, one of HopeCo’s invested church partners, where they first learned about HopeCo and what God is doing in East Africa. In 2019, Tai visited City of Hope in Tanzania and came back passionate about HopeCo’s work. Then last summer, Tai and Saina, along with other families at Community Church, opened their homes to host Tanzanian students studying in the U.S. at Mountain Mission School. Saina reflected, “We realized that our home is not for us, but it is also a safe haven. Orphan care doesn’t have to look traditional, it could look in parts like hosting students and opening your home.”
Tai and Saina are both from Nigeria, and have seen poverty and despair first hand. Saina explained, “We know what poverty really looks like and means, and that keeps us socially aware of how we can be doing more to help. It helps us both define what success really looks like long-term for struggling children and families.”
As Tai reflected on the calling God has placed on his life, he recalled a prayer he made when he was 13 at boarding school: “If you provide these things for me in the future, I will build a home for orphans.” He reflects, “It Is humbling and overwhelming to be able to remember that prayer and see how God has brought it all together. Having a wife that shares the calling to care for orphans, and seeing it come into play in our lives through adopting a child.”
Mwita and Monica Chacha, HopeCo Board members and friends of Tai and Saina, recommended to the Board that they also be invited to join. When asked, Tai and Saina eagerly said yes, knowing that God has placed a calling on their lives that they want to fulfill. They also both work full-time at Freddie Mac, a federal home loan corporation, and their personal and professional experience will be of great benefit to HopeCo. We are grateful to have them on the Board!
Looking to the future of HopeCo, Saina’s biggest dream is to see children become amazing leaders who will take everything they’ve learned and pour it back into other children who need love. “It goes beyond just HopeCo and Ntagacha, it is building a model that can be reproduced across Africa for other specific needs. It’s about letting the love outweigh the trauma,” Saina said.
Tai and Saina want to continue building a legacy of love that is built in Christ. “God is calling us out of our comfort zones. It’s easy to love those you feel comfortable with, but it’s harder when you feel like they don’t belong in your social class, or they have hurt you, or they don’t think as you do. His Kingdom has no borders. We dream of our kids having big hearts that will go beyond themselves and their environment to fulfill God’s call on their lives. We want people to say that we loved, no matter what.”
Whatever calling God has placed on your life, there is a place for you to partner with HopeCo and provide hope and healing to orphans and vulnerable children.
You can….
Sponsor a child, and give them life’s necessities, quality education, and a chance to grow and dream
Support a specific HopeCo program that you are passionate about as Hope Partner