From left: Amobi Okoye and Arinze Okoye run the Amobi Okoye Foundation, which has offices in Katy, Houston, Huntsville, Alabama, and Louisville, Kentucky.[/caption]

Education and giving back are top priorities of his charity, said former Houston Texans first round draft pick Amobi Okoye.

Okoye’s charitable foundation—the Amobi Okoye Foundation helps children in the U.S. and abroad through various programs.

“I always wanted to work with kids, and [because] football came calling, I had to put that on pause,” Okoye said. “The foundation was a way of me still, in a sense, helping kids out because my foundation is geared toward kids.”

Growing up in a tight-knit family in Nigeria, Okoye had the importance of education instilled in him from a young age. He skipped several grades and entered high school as a 12-year-old upon immigrating to U.S. In 2007, at age 19, he became the youngest player ever selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

Okoye started his foundation the same year and has been emphasizing the value of education to children ever since.

“I just try to preach to them about the importance of education, and try to find ways to motivate yourself,” he said. [I tell them] be open-minded to everything, listen to it and just take from it whatever you can.”

The Amobi Okoye Foundation is divided into domestic and international divisions and has a program called Kickoff 4 Kids. The program includes six domestic initiatives and is based in Houston with offices in Katy, Huntsville, Alabama, and Louisville, Kentucky—the later two being locations of Okoye’s high school and collegiate alma maters, respectively.

While originating domestically, Books Abroad is offered through the international program Changing Africa Through Education—which allows Okoye to give back to his native continent.

Okoye said he does not take his platform for granted.

“The ability to help out at-risk kids, all kids in general [keeps me going],” he said. “I’ve been put in a position to be able to do what I’m doing. I feel like it’s an obligation of mine to give back.”

Okoye said his foundation greatly values partnerships. One such partnership is with Katy ISD, which has provided some of the books for Okoye’s Books Abroad program.

“[KISD has] definitely been great,” Okoye said. “Books they provided for us, the book drive we did; they’ve been real good. A lot of local Katy communities and businesses have helped out, too.”

The foundation is also expanding its scope by partnering with the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance and Memorial Hermann to raise awareness and discover causes and cures for the group of brain diseases. Okoye was personally afflicted by anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis in 2013: he was placed into a medically induced coma for three months as a result of his condition.

Okoye—who recently signed with the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders—said he is grateful to have beaten the disease and is excited to begin his journey back into professional football. He said he will never forget how the disease has changed his life and takes pride in assisting those who suffer from it.

“Eventually, I plan on writing a book and hopefully having a movie. I really feel like there’s a plan and purpose for my life; there’s a reason that my life was the way it was,” Okoye said. “I guess I went through it for a reason to kind of help others out, especially the young kids.”