Punching For Children, Youths And Women Development

By Kazeem Mohammed

‘Giving back to the society’ has been common talk among Nigerians, particularly the well-to-do in the society. The statement is more popular among those holding positions in government. Backing it up with actions has always been the phenomenon rendering such talks useless.

While some attributed their failure to meet up with their ‘Giving Back to the society’ talks to their inability to harness the resources required, to some, it is a mere statement that came when they were either seeking elections or appointments to government offices.

To Tokunbo Ifaturoti, founder and Executive Director, Children Youths and Women Empowerment Initiatives (CHIYOWO), it was not a mere talk, but it was backed up with actions through various outreach programmes in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, including provision of relief materials to the needy, provision of educational materials and provision of fund for women to start small scale businesses in other to have sources of livelihood to sustain themselves before they return to their various homes in Adamawa, Yobe and Maiduguri.

Founded in 2016, the NGO was set up with a vision to ensure that no child is left behind and ensure that every child has tools that will enable him to have a source of sustainable livelihoods. The mission is to find out what are the factors limiting them to reach their full potentials with a view to develop and design development projects that will enable them to enhance their lives towards having sustainable livelihoods.

According to Ifaturoti, it has been established that the main threat confronting children, youths and women is sustainable livelihood, saying that her organisation has, as a result of this anchoring itself on the Sustainable Development Goals.

“We have four thematic focus areas, one is safeguarding and protecting children, the other is providing sustainable livelihood tools for women, the third one is youth empowerment and the fourth one is education, especially for children and youths. If it is education, we are teaching children and provide educational materials for them; if it is empowerment for women we provide money for them to start small business and expose them to skill acquisition like jewelry making and some other things and sell them to host communities. We have also done some Girl-child outreach programmes in Benin which was quite phenomenon.

”What we have found out along the line is that there is poverty, gender inequality, need for infrastructure innovation, and there is need for partnership to address some of the issues. Through our short journey, we have aligned ourselves with partners that have the same vision and mission as ours and that has enable us to reach farther places that we never even anticipated”.

As at the last count in April 2017, the NGO, according to the founder has affected 2,572 lives from Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Benin and Lagos, saying, “This year, we are moving away from the North to broaden our steps, by moving to the six geo-political zones in Nigeria with a book drive, which is a literacy programme. We are going to schools, giving them books to put into their libraries so that everybody would have access to the books in the library and everyone will be empowered to use those books, hence, the number will be huge this year”.

Last week, the CHIYOWO team stormed the state of Osun to make book donations to some selected schools in the state and the first point of call was Iwoye-Ijesa Middle and High Schools and followed by the St Peters Anglican Primary School, Erinmo-Ijesa.

Speaking on the idea behind the donations, Ifaturoti said, “We came up with a theme called “Bring back our reading culture”. This is because through our talks and walks so far, we found out that so many youths couldn’t construct sentences, they couldn’t communicate properly; for primary schools it was worst, and we even found out that some kids at a particular age were not going to schools at all. Then, we said to ourselves that we should try and start to affect their lives at a younger age and the way to go is to bring back our reading culture.

“Subsequently, I spoke to my partners in United Kingdom about what we have found out and that we can begin to sensitise them about what to be done. So, my main partner is the Nigerian School Foundation in United Kingdom. We started the drive, used the social media and we were able to get people to donate books to us. Initially, we had 1,258 books which we needed to bring to Nigeria. So expensive to bring in book to Nigeria though but we decided to stay on course because it was a mission that we needed to accomplish.  We have a few donors too that were tapping into this from America, from England and they have been connecting with us through their donations in monetary and material terms that are enough for us to get the projects done.

“We have earmarked Osun, Lagos, Ogun, Yobe, Borno, Kaduna, Abuja, Ebonyi, Delta, Benin, for now. Presently, we are in Osun, we went to Iwoye High School and now St Peters Anglican Primary School Erinmo-Ijesa and the feedback was impressive as people are receiving the whole idea. We had spelling bee competition, we had history competition and we were able to discover that there are some of these children that have potentials but nobody to help them out. What that is telling us is that the society is broken down and we can identify such talents, grow the talents and help them reach their full potentials. What some of these children are coming up with are very interesting and it is important that we have partners to come on board to help such talents because the truth is that the government can’t do everything.

“We can help the talents and can create platform for others to catch up with their peers. So, we believe that this reading club will help, we have variety of books from foreign and Nigeria Authors that we are donating. It is important for organization like ours to partner and have a meeting point. We need to begin to empower our people to be in tune with global trends.

Asked on whether the donations were being made in public schools alone, she said, “We are doing it in what we call Hard to a Reach Communities, or Underserved Communities. For instance in Ogun, we did in private school, but not a normal private school, it is a private school that is suffering in the sense that it is a low level or what I can call a middle level school that the parents economic power can cope with, with a belief that their children with get a bit more improved education, but because of recession, parents have had to stop their school fees or put their children out of school.

“So, this is a private school, but it is a school that needs help and the assistance that we could give is to give them library for the children that are still left in the school. Incidentally, there is a private school in front of the one we are talking about; that one was well set up and a teacher from that school came to me and said how can we do the same thing in their school? What then struck me was that there is nothing wrong in that school partnering with the lower one in line with sustainable development goal to be able for us to grow together”, Chiyowo founder explained.

On the impacts of the NGO’s intervention on its beneficiaries, Ifaturoti said, “The feedback that we have been getting is fabulous because like I said, we are youth-led NGO and we have a number of people that have said, by helping our youths, we have actually impacted their lives. One, the youths that are involved in this project have aligned their passion with what we are doing as an NGO. Their involvement was subject to the talk I made in the University of Lagos, that while you are waiting for a while collar job, it is normal to have your minds ticking, to have global outlook to what you are doing. I live in London and if I wanted to I could just stay there, but I have carved some times out to try and see how I can come back and give back to the society.

“Also feedback from the beneficiaries has been very wonderful. For instance we sunk a borehole in one of the IDP camps in Abuja and the women there were crying that we have affected their lives. Though, it was a borehole that has been there for a while, but something happened and nobody tried to repair it.

“So, I could see the emotion in their voices and their faces and I could see little kids running around in joy and sometimes you feel like crying that oh, I could touch such lives like this.

“Also, during some of the Girl-child outreach programmes that we did in Benin, it was quite phenomenon, as there was a young girl of about 15, that just broke down in tears that in her home nobody listens to her and that she doesn’t has a voice, saying, this is the first time she has been able to express herself. You can see how much she’s gone through such maltreatment. So, we have monitoring and feedback mechanism that we use in ensuring that the impact of our intervention is felt.

Also speaking on the project, the Director-General, Osun State Bureau of Social Services (BOSS) and Coordinator, Youths Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), Barrister Femi Ifaturoti said the founder of the organization had many reasons not to engage in the project, but she has shown commitment to give back to the society.

“What that lady is doing is a clear demonstration that there are still some who believe in the philosophy of giving back to the society.

“The lesson here is that people should realise that it is not everything that the government can do. Government cannot have an even spread. She has come in to fill that vacuum to ensure that the horizons of the children are broaden in terms of reading books, particularly those in the rural communities.

“I am impressed with what she is doing and this a time to call on more individuals and organisations to partners with government in ensuring that more vacuums are filled”, Ifaturoti added.