Princess Chetachi Ecton, from Mbaise, Imo State in Nigeria and adopted by the Royal Family of Kpop Ham of Hamland, Nok Kingdom in Southern Kaduna is one of the most inspiring people in the world. Hers is a personal story that incredibly shifts from surviving a life of poverty and abuse to creating a humanitarian and philanthropic organization that is changing the lives of people that live on less than $1 a day around the world. Whether she is writing checks to sponsor thousands of boys and girls to go to school, assisting widows with funds to engage in subsistence farming in rural villages, funding high-level humanitarian medical delegations to Africa, or engaging the international community to pay attention to disadvantaged communities in Third World Countries, she remains a self-driven trailblazer who is always seeking opportunities for the betterment of the people in dire poverty.
Princess Chetachi migrated from Nigeria to the United States at the age of seventeen and later became an American citizen with dual citizenship. Like most immigrants that come to the shores of America, she struggled to make ends meet but worked hard to put herself in school and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Social Work from Widener University. She is a survivor of an abusive marriage that she escaped and started raising her three children alone. Despite the crucible circumstances resulting from a brutal relationship, she persevered and held as many as four jobs at one time and still withstood the demanding and taxing responsibilities of single parenting, work and the pursuit of her education.
Inspired by the nexus between her own struggles and the variations of the social landscape she learned in college, Princess Chetachi assumed a social enterprise undertaking in the real estate market and staked an opportunity that helped her expand her entrepreneurial and humanitarian dispositions into broader contexts. Her first social work venture was a healthcare agency that provides services to the intellectually and developmentally disabled individuals. Princess Chetachi began to develop the mindset of striving for excellence in all facets of her life with an innate desire and unparalleled determination to provide quality services in the social services world, while lending a helping hand to other people and communities in need. She believes in going over and beyond the call of duty to make a positive difference in the world around her. This passion of service is what led to the founding of a humanitarian and philanthropic organization that helps the people in need; The When In Need Foundation.
Through the When In Need Foundation, Princess Chetachi has helped change the lives of millions of people by donating funds for education, agriculture and healthcare in different communities in Nigeria. For example, in 2018, using her networks and relationships with private foundations and organizations of goodwill like the Order of Saint George, International Rotary Club, Corporate America and the International Community, Princess Chetachi mobilized an unprecedented effort of in-kind donations of medical supplies worth over $1 million to communities in Nigeria. She believes that if nonprofit organizations and other non-state actors are going to complement the World Leaders’ commitment of attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, then we must all spare no resources to partner with other stakeholders in reaching the mark.
Princess Chetachi sustains the work of the When In Need Foundation by donating 98 percent of her income, and every other resource at her disposal, to facilitate all overheads in the United States and abroad. She is a resource to hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.