Children Matter Foundation

We are a charity based in the United Kingdom which raises funds to promote and improve the access to quality education for disadvantaged children up to age 16 in Oyo State Nigeria. We consider that every child matters and that education is fundamental in providing children knowledge, empowerment, and support to help them grow into the adult they want to become. For instance, in the U.K, we are so lucky in the one sense that education is free for all children (unless of course you want to pay to send your child to a private school) however, in the background of our fee school system there is underlying issue of poverty which research suggest is increasing. One way in which poverty could aff... read more We are a charity based in the United Kingdom which raises funds to promote and improve the access to quality education for disadvantaged children up to age 16 in Oyo State Nigeria. We consider that every child matters and that education is fundamental in providing children knowledge, empowerment, and support to help them grow into the adult they want to become. For instance, in the U.K, we are so lucky in the one sense that education is free for all children (unless of course you want to pay to send your child to a private school) however, in the background of our fee school system there is underlying issue of poverty which research suggest is increasing. One way in which poverty could affect a child educational development is at home they might not have access to I.T equipment and wi-fi which is wildly used throughout the schools in the UK. Therefore, leaving the children disadvantaged. In contrast to this, in Africa, Nigeria schooling is not free, materials needed are not free and the equipment required is not free. Therefore, so many children are missing out of the opportunity to develop their educational journey due to the reason that their parents cannot afford to send them to school. Therefore, the aim of the charity is to support these disadvantaged children to gain access to education. We have a range of projects that we would like to undertake and some long term goals. As well as supporting child in need initially, we would like to set up a free school that would be able to cater for children who cannot afford to pay school fees. The service is to provide educational support for disadvantaged children by the means of buying educational materials, school uniform, school bags, school shoes and by paying the school fees if needed. The charity will be focusing on Oyo State Nigeria. This is the area I grew up, whereas a child I was able to make friends, where I went to school, where I went to church and I was able to see the good and worse neighbourhoods. The market research that I have been able to conduct is by talking to teachers and headmasters in a number of schools in Oyo State, who were able to confirm how big this issue is and is an issue which is continuing to grow year upon year. This charity is unique because we are one of the most few charity based in the UK providing educational support for disadvantaged children in Africa. Growing up attending church, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to volunteer and assist with Sunday schools. This provided me with experience of working with children to teach them the bible studies. In doing this, I was able to see how many children who came to Sunday school who so eager to learn and some of them were so clever but yet they were unable to attend state school simply because their parents were not able to afford this. Since then, after starting my social and community development course, it has relit a passion in me to give back to my community and support the disadvantaged children. As the charity is initially only focusing on one state in Nigeria we will be working closely with the schools within this area to let them know the purpose of our charity and what support we can provide. Schools will be able to refer children to the charity who they consider would benefit from the support services that we can provide. An assessment will be carried out on the child with a teacher or their parents present to determine what support that child may need. This could range from school equipment for lessons, school clothes to even having their school fees paid to ensure they remain in education. All completed assessments will then be discussed monthly in the trustee's meeting to determine if the need of the child can be met by the charity. I consider that the charity will be successful as I believe that I am passionate about this problem and focused on making a difference. The charity will be relying on voluntary contributions and donations from individuals, institutions, and organizations that share charitable aims with us. This comes from a range of individuals. However, the charity will try to focus on a target customer group of parents aged 30 + In other to remain person centre, the funding will be used to identify what provision a child will need in other for them to access education. Furthermore, I have been in contact with the material supplier in Nigeria and it has been estimated that through funding activities and donations the aim is to raise 5000+ within the next 6 months.