The Rice Family: Mission to Nigeria

The Rice Family: Mission to Nigeria

It’s often said that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. That statement certainly holds true to Duneland native and Chesterton Middle School student, Georgia Rice.

Georgia, along with older brother Jack, and parents, Tim and Shelly Rice, embarked on an experience of a lifetime this past fall, joining Kids Around the World and A Boy and His Dream Foundation on a mission trip to Nigeria.

“My brother Jack did a packing event with Kids Around the World a couple of years ago,” explains Georgia. “I wanted to get more involved to make an even bigger impact, and do a mission trip with it. I decided to get more kids in our community involved by recruiting team leaders to get their friends and families to help with fundraising and packing the food.” Together, Georgia and her team raised enough money to provide 80,000 meals and buy a playground for a village school in Nigeria.

Raising the money and packing meals was just the beginning for Georgia and her family. Her passion for helping the kids of Nigeria grew as plans to build the playground in Nigeria unfolded. “Boarding the plane to Nigeria was exciting and scary,” said Georgia. “We chose Nigeria because we have a friend, Sunny Akhigbe, of A Boy and His Dream Foundation, who grew up there. He helped organize the mission trip and I knew he would make sure we were safe.”

After a 14 hour flight, the family was ready to get to work! “It felt amazing to work with all the local kids to build the playground,” remembers Georgia. “The community was so excited and eager to help.”

The trip wasn’t without its challenges. While most of the children spoke some English, it was broken and with a thick accent. That didn’t stop Georgia and Jack from making friends and getting to know the people they were helping. “The most memorable thing on my trip was getting to meet all the kids, getting to work with them on different projects and just getting to know them!” The impact these kids had on the Rice family was mutually returned with the impact the Rice’s had on the village they served.

Georgia wrapped up her thoughts on the whole experience by saying, “The biggest thing we learned from this project is that kids can accomplish big things. When given some inspiration, guidance and support, they can (and want) to lead and help others.”

Tim and Shelly could not be more proud of their kids. “Our children were so motivated by this project that they definitely want to continue to do more like this in the future. They have big ideas and we will continue to help and support them in any way we can.”

The kids keep in touch with their Nigerian friends through social media. Just the other day one of the teachers at the school posted a few photos of the kids playing on the playground during recess. They were just as excited to play that afternoon as they were the very first day.

The Rice family would like to thank all the local kids and families that helped build an amazing playground.