West Loop's Boy and His Dream Foundation aims to help all children achieve their dreams

“From Hero to Zero” is not only how Sunny Akomu Akhigbe describes the trajectory of his own remarkable life, it is what he says can be the trajectory of the life of every child struggling with poverty, neglect or other obstacles.

It’s a message he brings to youth in Chicago's West Loop and beyond through A Boy and His Dream Foundation.

Named for his autobiography—written under the name Ambrose Okosun and detailing the horrific abuse and neglect he endured as the shunned child of an unmarried mother—the foundation provides scholarships to Chicago youths and school supplies to those in Nigeria.

More important, Akhigbe told West Loop News in a telephone interview, it provides youths with assurances that there is light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how it seems at the time.

Akhigbe has a schedule jam-packed with motivational speaking at schools from elementary through college, Boys and Girls Clubs, and anywhere else where there are kids who need a helping hand.

From not being able to read when he was an 18-year-old Nigerian, Akhigbe went on to get an undergraduate degree and an MBA from Purdue University; he is now a successful personal trainer with his own company, Sunny Biggy Fitness.

But he was not content to keep his success for himself. Saying his early hardships taught him empathy and compassion, Akhigbe decided to pay back and co-founded, with Diana Bridges, the A Boy and His Dream Foundation based in the West Loop.

“We have created programs that will generate change in the youth who are our leaders of tomorrow,” reads a statement on the organization’s website. “It is our mission to provide them with positive options and to speak to them in REAL TIME, without sugar-coating that life is challenging; to show by example, when thrown a difficult situation, how to overcome and make the best decision for a great outcome.”

The foundation has a 12-member board that spans races, ages and genders. Like Akhigbe, everyone involved makes their living in their own profession and work from their homes—there is no office space and 100 percent of its income, Akhigbe says, goes to programs and provisions for the children it serves.

To learn more about A Boy and His Dream, visit www.aboyandhisdream.org.