HEARST MEDIA/CT Insider | March 2026  

Bathed in the glow of fluorescent hospital lights, Rev. Father Lawrence Nwachukwu Okwuosa traced the Sign of the Cross – forehead, chest, and shoulders – in quiet prayer.

He then raised his hand in blessing over 30 laptops that had once belonged to staff members at Hartford HealthCare’s St. Vincent’s Medical Center, now destined for his hometown of Oguta in Imo State, Nigeria. As he concluded, Okwuosa sprinkled a light dusting of holy water, drawing amused but nervous glances from the IT Department, now tasked with shipping them out to a youth center his family opened in January.

​”God brought me to St Vincent’s to help my youth in my village, because right now the situation is so bad. You see people disoriented, not having where to go, who to rely on, or what to do next,” he said. “And I feel that this time not to let them on their own, but to show them that we care. It’s just to let them have a place they can call their own, where people can listen to them.”

​Growing up in Oguta with a large family, Okwuosa said he was surrounded by a community focused on helping each other. He left his hometown at the age of 10 to attend a junior seminary and was ordained in 1998.

​Okwuosa said he’s worked with youths throughout most of his career, supporting them in various ways, such as helping pay school fees. But as he reached his 25th anniversary as a priest, he wanted to “say a big thank you to God” when the inspiration hit to help the youth back in Otuga.

​Many of the youths in his hometown are disconnected, Okwuosa said, struggling with substance use, teen pregnancy and more.

​”Everybody was saying, ‘Well, that is the society,’ but I felt that we need to do something,” he said. “We should not leave them all by their own.”

​Okwuosa opened the INEm Youth Center for Youth Formation and Development in January, in collaboration with his older sister and younger brother. Its name, “INEm,” is an Igbo acronym, he said, combining his name with those of his mother, brother, and sister.

​The center has a library, a chapel and a computer science lab. Okwuosa added there’s also a hall where the youths can watch films and soccer matches together. Even while they watch soccer, he said the youths are being supervised by an “authority” who can offer them advice, support, and more. The youths can join the center at no cost.

​They also offer resources. Okwuosa said, for example, that the center hosted a medical mission two days after opening, giving many young people free access to psychiatrists and other professionals.

​”This is their sacred space where they can come at any time and seek advice, counsel from reliable people,” he said.

Despite the structure being built, Okwuosa said filling it with supplies, such as musical instruments and computers, was the next challenge.

​That’s where Hartford HealthCare came in.

​It began about a month ago, when the IT department stopped by to replace Okwuosa’s laptop. He had been serving as the hospital’s manager of pastoral care for the past year. Seeing a potential partnership, he asked whether the laptops could be donated, and he directly reached out to Bill Jennings, senior vice president of Hartford HealthCare.

​”I was proud that the community service and community engagement mission that Hartford HealthCare has locally in Connecticut is now international,” said Jennings. “That is something that’s really prideful to know that we can be so consequential in the neighborhoods we serve… but to know that we can also bring some benevolence to a small village in Nigeria is something that I never would have imagined a year ago. And it really feels good.”

The laptops were being replaced as part of an effort to upgrade St. Vincent’s computer system to a more up-to-date operating system, said Muhammad Shehaiber, manager of field services at the medical center.

If the replaced laptops are relatively new, Shehaiber said, the department typically keeps a handful as emergency loaners, which had been the original plan for the 30 laptops now freshly blessed with holy water.

​To prepare them for donation, technicians wipe and replace the hard drives, install a new operating system and set up password-free guest accounts. Shehaiber added that they are also supplying new chargers for all the laptops, bought with their IT budget.

​Student intern Noah Gerstein said it took him about three to four weeks to set up all 30 laptops. All that’s left is to pack them up and ship them out.

​​With laptops soon available at the youth center, Okwuosa said he’s looking to partner with local schools and organize computer skills classes for the youths. Moving forward, however, one of the major challenges will be ensuring the center’s financial sustainability so it continues to be a resource for the kids.

​”I’m optimistic it will work. It will not blossom in a day,” he said. “It needs patience. It needs been there 24 hours for them.”

Jennings said he’ll be a “listening ear” to any potential partnerships with Okwuosa in the future, but added that there are other charities internationally with similar needs. He recently secured 10 laptops for the Shanti School in Telangana, India.

“All the girls want to be doctors, all the boys want to be computer engineers, and they don’t have a computer,” he said, describing his visit to the school. “So to bring four or 10 computers to them is going to bring the same enlightenment that Father Lawrence’s school is going to see.”