CONNECTING RURAL CHILDREN TO THE WORLD THROUGH STORYBOOKS
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
– Dr. Seuss
Dear Donor,
In 2017, when Keeping It Real Foundation adopted four schools in the underserved rural communities in Northern Nigeria to educate 270 children, we discovered that none of the children had seen storybooks before and we decided to change that. Since then, we have donated over 500 storybooks to the children. Reading storybooks improves literacy skills, gives children the knowledge to follow their dreams and encourages a love for reading amongst other things.
Thus to commemorate the International Book Giving Day 2021 and our 10th Anniversary, we donated 215 books (77 textbooks and 138 storybooks) to the pupils of CDM Primary School Lainde. Lainde is located on Mubi hills in Mubi North Local Government Area in the interior parts of Adamawa State, cut away from civilization and all forms of social amenities/infrastructure.
The donation of the books will help the teachers and students because they lack the information and resources they need to support the development of their reading skills and stay engaged and interested in reading books. Furthermore, it will support community-wide reading activities because the school intends to set up a mini-library in the school that will be accessible to everyone in the community.
According to David, the Mobilization and Media Director of our implementing partner; CDM Foundation, “The pupils in the school have very little contact with or exposure to the outside world. The storybooks, in particular, will give them the opportunity to connect with the world beyond their immediate community and improve their communication skills because some of the children are not fluent in the English Language”
I2-year-old Sefiya who is in primary six was excited to get her first storybook, ‘The Shortcut’ by Susan Blackaby. Sefiya wants to be a teacher and her first storybook will help Sefiya on her journey to becoming one. Dear donors your investment will put books in the hands of underserved girls like Sefiya and her friends that will give them the knowledge to achieve their dreams.
However, we still need $31,355 to ensure that young girls like Sefiya and her friends continue their education and follow their dreams. CDM Primary School Lainde still needs flooring, windows, desks and educational materials. Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donate to our project; https://www.GlobalGiving.org/projects/educate-270-children-in-northern-nigeria/. Please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues so that we can invest in more children like Sefiya especially in this Covid-19 season to give them a foundation for their future and dreams!
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SUCH A JOY TO SHARE GOOD NEWS!
Hilary – “I have to study hard; I want to be a medical doctor”.
(Graduated first in his class) Hilary, an orphan, 6th of 10 children in his family, the first to finish primary school.
We extend our congratulations to Hilary, his friend Timothy and their classmates for finishing primary school!
For most of us, primary school education is something we take for granted, but for millions of Nigerian children, like Hilary and Timothy, it is a privilege! Although, primary education is officially free and compulsory in Nigeria, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Only 61 per cent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school.
In the north of the country, particularly the north-eastern states like Adamawa State, where Hilary and his friend Timothy live in Mubi Hills, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 per cent. The lack of access to education in northern Nigeria is driven by various factors like economic barriers, socio-cultural norms which has been exacerbated by the Boko Haram insurgency, making it more difficult for children like Hilary and his friends to finish primary school.
Therefore, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and schools had to be shut for more than six months; It seemed like Hilary’s journey to becoming a medical doctor had come to an abrupt end! However, with the support from GlobalGiving and our generous donors; Hilary and his classmates were able to go back to school, write the National Common Entrance Examinations and they are now in secondary school.
Hilary is an orphan, he is 13 years old, the 6th in a family of 10 children and the first to finish primary school. He graduated first in his class and dreams of becoming a medical doctor. While, 14-year-old Timothy his friend, wants to be a teacher. He is the 3rd in a family of 6 children and the first male child to finish primary school. Education is so important in providing these young boys with a foundation for the future they dream of.
Dear donors your investment have directly helped Hilary and Timothy finish primary school and continue with their dreams. We are so proud. Congratulations!
However, we still need $33,787 to ensure that young boys like Hilary, Timothy and their friends finish primary school and pursue their dreams of becoming! CDM Primary School Lainde still needs flooring, windows and desks and all the children still need educational materials. Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donate to our project; https://www.GlobalGiving.org/projects/educate-270-children-in-northern-nigeria/ and please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues so that we can invest in more children like Hilary and Timothy, especially in this Covid-19 season to give them a foundation for their future and dreams!
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RESTORING HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
In the early days of the Covid-19 Pandemic, we were so uncertain as an organization, we really did not know what to expect. We had to close our Community Centre at the end of March, partly because of the closure of schools and the instructions of management and the COVID -19 protocol by the government on physical distancing.
We had to cancel projects that were a means of revenue. We were operating on a shoestring budget and struggling to operate virtually, with limited staff. We could not keep our Community Centre, which provided a safe space for underserved children in our community, open. Also, we could not pay most of our staff, we had to downsize and work from home.
Our project in Mubi Hills in Adamawa State in Northern Nigeria was also at risk because all schools had been closed since mid-March by the government. The children in these poor underserved rural communities have no access to digital learning and therefore limited learning opportunities without the support of their teachers in a regular school setting. The children had gone back to farming full time because of the closure of the schools and we were afraid that they would have forgotten most of what they had learnt when the schools eventually resumed, thereby negatively impacting all the work we had done in the past three years. Since our intervention, school enrolment had doubled from the initial 270 we started with; in Niger and Adamawa States, while attendance and retention had gone up by 85%.
Our implementing partner; CDM Foundation could not pay the teachers from the end of March because the parents were not paying any fees, since the children were not going to school. We spoke to James, the Coordinator of CDM Schools towards the end of June and urged him to persuade the teachers to go back to school in July to prepare the students in primary 6, who are in an exit class for national examinations. They agreed to do so, but we were worried about taking on the burden of paying the teachers since we were struggling financially, the situation looked bleak.
We applied for the first micro-grant and did not get it. Reluctantly, we applied a second time and got the heart-warming email that had us jumping for joy with relief. We sent a part of the grant to our partners; CDM Foundation to pay the teachers so that they could take care of their families and buy textbooks for the primary six students to prepare for their national examinations. We gradually reopened our Community Centre in July and the teenagers resumed activities in the Digital Club and we held a disability-inclusive workshop on International Youth Day in August. Then in the middle of August, we got yet another miraculous grant from GlobalGiving which totally Restored our Hope for the future.
The second grant has given us the resources to buy four gently used laptops, we will install educational resources and software and source for solar panels to charge the laptops and get some solar-powered radios. We want to introduce the students to basic digital skills and we are hopeful the students will be more adequately prepared for the future.
15-year-old Peace, a primary six student, was really excited to return to school to prepare for the National Common Entrance Examinations. Peace is the 4th of 10 children in her family and second to finish primary school. Peace said she loves education because she can read and write, it gives her knowledge, confidence and helps her make better decisions. She sponsored her primary education from the proceeds she got from farming after school hours and during the holidays. Her dream of becoming a lawyer would have been dashed without the GlobalGiving Microgrant and Emergency Grant from the Coronavirus Relief Fund because Peace and her friends would not have been able to return to school. Thank you GlobalGiving and GlobalGiving partners for restoring the hope of two organizations and our underserved beneficiaries like Peace! We are extremely grateful!
However, we still need $33,787 to ensure that the project continues and is completed. CDM Primary School Lainde still needs flooring, windows and desks. Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donate to our project; https://www.GlobalGiving.org/projects/educate-270-children-in-northern-nigeria/ and please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues so that we can invest in more children like Peace and her friends, especially in this Covid-19 season, to enable build their capacity to have a bright future. Please invest in this project on Giving Tuesday 2020.
All donations are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers to the full extent permitted by the law. Your donations will help us break the cycle of poverty by providing quality education for our rural beneficiaries. Also, visit our blog www.kirfoundation.blogspot.com to learn more about us.
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Dear Donor, three years ago, after the aftermath of the Boko Haram insurgency, we embarked on a journey together that took us to the remote village of Gilmari in the Hills of Mubi in Adamawa State to visit CDM Nursery and Primary School. We met Glory, Nathaniel, Miracle and their little friends who were toddlers in Nursery School. Their school was a makeshift structure made of bamboo poles and a zinc roof without walls to protect them from the weather and the floor was bare sand, exposing the little ones to health hazards.
The 22 children we met on that day in May 2017, were eager to learn, some said they wanted to be teachers, nurses and doctors, professionals that this remote village really needs to pull them out of poverty. However, they had no learning materials, they were sitting on the bare floor and their teachers had no instructional materials too. The state of the school made the children fall ill easily and frequently with common cold, skin allergies and mild respiratory ailments. All these factors led to low enrolment, attendance and retention rate.
We realised that the education of these children could not wait because each child in school and learning means direct success for communities like Gilmari and the world. Over the past three years, we are glad to announce that with support from donors in Nigeria and you; our GlobalGiving donors, the children and their teachers have been receiving educational materials like (textbooks, storybooks, exercise books, lesson plans for the teachers, erasers, pencils, pens, sharpeners and rulers), a proper school building with two classroom blocks have been built with permanent blackboards and the classrooms were equipped with 15 desks and a bookshelf, early this year. We are happy to announce that the number of children has increased from 22 to 62. Glory, Nathaniel, Miracle and their little friends are happy to go to school in a safe and hygienic environment.
We especially thank our recurring donor and GlobalGiving Partners whose continuous investment has assisted us to provide the 15 desks and bookshelf for the little ones in Gilmari. However, we still need $33,809 to ensure that the project continues and is completed. CDM Primary School Lainde still needs flooring, windows and desks. Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donate to our project; https://www.GlobalGiving.org/projects/educate-270-children-in-northern-nigeria/ and please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues so that we can invest in more children like Glory, Nathaniel, Miracle and their little friends, especially in this Covid-19 season, to enable us to introduce the children to digital literacy and e-learning despite their remote location.
All donations are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers to the full extent permitted by the law. Your donations will help us break the cycle of poverty by providing quality education for our rural beneficiaries. Also, visit our blog www.kirfoundation.blogspot.com to learn more about us.
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"On any given school day, over 1 billion children around the world head to class. More children and adolescents today are enrolled in pre-primary, primary and secondary education than ever before. Yet, for many of them, schooling does not lead to learning.
A lack of trained teachers, inadequate learning materials, makeshift classes and poor sanitation facilities make learning difficult for many children. The consequences are grave: An estimated 617 million children and adolescents around the world are unable to reach minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics – even though two-thirds of them are in school.
This learning crisis is the greatest global challenge to preparing children and adolescents for life, work and active citizenship"; https://www.unicef.org/education.
A new school term gives children a chance to learn new things. However, for most children in North-Eastern Nigeria, because of the lack of learning materials, schooling, does not always lead to learning. Therefore, to help improve learning and reduce dropout rates among children of poor rural farmers in Adamawa State, Keeping It Real Foundation with your immense investment is providing basic learning materials (notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners and rulers) necessary for children to attend school and learn.
Thank you, donors, your investment has helped girls like 7-year-old Blessing who is in Primary One, 12-year-old Bilhah in Primary Three, 13-year-old Affordia who is in Primary Four and their friends in CDM Primary School Lainde in Mubi Hills in the rural community of Adamawa State in North Eastern Nigeria to have access to learning materials. Your intervention is helping these girls and their friends to go to school and actually learn. In the new school term, your invaluable support enabled us to give the following (1,390 notebooks, 360 rulers, sharpeners, pencils and pens) to 65 students and their teachers.
Dear donors, your decision to invest in these children make it possible for girls like Blessing, Bilhah, Affordia and their classmates to go to school and learn, thus preparing them for a better future than that of their parents. We are enormously grateful to you, that your giving has put educational materials in the hands of these underserved children in the rural community of Lainde, thus helping them to reach at least a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics.
We especially thank our recurring donor and GlobalGiving Partners whose continuous investment has assisted us to donate these educational materials! However, we still need $33,969 to ensure that the project continues and is completed. CDM Primary School Lainde and CDM Nursery School Gilmari still need flooring, windows and desks.
Kindly consider becoming a recurring donor and donate to our project; https://www.GlobalGiving.org/projects/educate-270-children-in-northern-nigeria/ and please encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to show some love on Valentine's Day on the 14th of February, which is also International Book Giving Day so that we can invest in more girls like Blessing, Bihah, Affordia. All donations are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers to the full extent permitted by the law. Your donations will help us break the cycle of poverty by providing quality education for our rural beneficiaries. Also, visit our blog www.kirfoundation.blogspot.com to learn more about us.
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