Educate and Train 100 Disadvantaged Children

I didn't want to do it... That is, base our report on the pandemic that has swept the world!  Surely, that's what everyone is wrting and talking about.  But the truth is, it has become our reality.

Before Coronavirus, we knew we had problems in the world, especially in my country, Nigeria!  But with Coronavirus, all the issues became magnified in the way they made responding to or thriving through the crisis difficult.  As a charity, we knew that poverty was a HUGE problem in our country, and it's one of the things we are tackling through our initiative.  But suddenly, with the entrance of Coronavirus and the compulsory lockdown, it seemed like the poverty we had been 'managing' was what would actually kill us before the Coronavirus we were all so afraid of!

While other citizens could boast about the support they got from their governments, we could not even dream of it.  The rich managed to take care themselves well by stocking up, but how could someone who lives on everything he makes each day stock up?!  How could someone who relies on his monthly income to live and provide for his family, and extended family even, stock up when he probably no longer has a job?  How could the homeless practice social distancing, when they don't even have their own place to sleep?  It didn't take long for the rich to begin to fear for the crime that would result from such imbalance and negligence of government.

Seriously, the issues are too abundant to talk about.  But something happened that brought it a little closer to home for us at Fair Life Africa Foundation.  A fire broke out in an already impoverished neighbourhood, where several of our children reside.  Fortunately, only one of our kids' homes was affected, but hers was one of 100 families whose homes were destroyed by the fire at "Dustbin estate", Ajegunle, where she lived with her mother.  How do you respond to such a crisis, in our state of enforced lockdown brought about by the pandemic?

Fortunately, another organisation, which had referred Naomi to us, were based at Ajegunle, and were on ground to provide assistance to those affected.  They were also able to confirm some statistics for us, and the real state of affairs.  Through our liason and partnership, we were able to raise funds to support 15 of the families affected, including our very own Naomi.  We wrote a post on our blog, which we circulated to raise awareness.  Our support addressed their immediate needs for food, medicine, and clothing, but they had to make do with squatting with friends or at Churches and available spaces nearby.  We really wish we could have done more, but we are happy to have been able to do anything at all.

This Valentine period, before the virus came to Nigeria, we organised a special brunch for our children, which we held at Foodies Restaurant, Lekki on the 16th of February. We invited their sponsors to join us and were happy that several honoured our invitation.  The children really enjoyed it, as it was a nice change from the other brunches and parties we organised at our centre.  We also wrote about this on our blog.

We really hope that the time will soon come when we can gather happily together again, without face masks, to enjoy our humanity and freedom.  But even more than this, we look forward to the day that 'charity' work will no longer be necessary, because poverty and disease will be no more...  Can we dream a little?

Until then, thanks so much for joining us in our efforts to make a difference in our world! 

Links:

• Fair Life Africa Foundation
• Official Blog

Over the years, since 2012, when we ran a rehabilitation home, we've sought to do something special for our children every Christmas.  In 2012, we had our very first Christmas party, and it was a great success.  We anticipated that we'd do the same in 2013.  However, come 2013, we were no longer housing street children, but working with them in the community, as we took a break to evaluate that initiative.  Instead, we did follow up visits, and took Christmas to their homes.

By Christmas 2014, we'd enrolled the first ten children into our then new Disadvantage to Advantage Initiative and did our first Santa Drive to their various homes and communities, where we shared gifts and provisions to the kids and their families. In 2015, we didn't have a party, as it was the Christmas we partnered with Ultima Limited to scout for five talented children to support to achieve their potential in the FLA Talent Search.  It wasn't til 2016 that we decided to host another Christmas party for our children, which they very much enjoyed.  Interswitch Nigeria came along with gifts to make it more special.

We held another Christmas party, come December 2017, which the children were tasked to plan.  They had a great time doing so, and we also went out swimming.  In 2018, we had A Christmas to Remember, our biggest celebration yet.  We invited children on our waiting list and their families, who we gave Christmas hampers, as well as our FLA Kids, as we hoped to link them with sponsors.

We hoped to carry on the tradition, but aside from the kids having a great time, celebrating with each other and their families, and taking home gifts and provisions, we wondered about the impact of these celebrations we plan for the kids each year, especially when a sponsor mentioned that she thought the families would prefer the physical cash than the money spent on these events.  It made us think and reconsider our plans for 2019.  We really do appreciate the feedback and contributions of our sponsors, and we'd like them to feel we are making the best of their donations, in bringing joy to our kids and empowering them for a fairer life.

So, last Christmas, we planned the Secret Santa Christmas, instead of hosting a party for our kids.  We sought out to learn more about the needy families in our local community and link them with sponsors, who would give them just what they need; for their family, children and/or business.  We anticipated that a lot of people would key into this but, unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of support with this and were only able to gift seven families in need, out of the 100 we assessed and appealed for.  We shared about each family (using pseudonyms) via our Instagram page, but as a recap:

1. The Anthonys, a family of six, got N50,000 towards their business and financial needs;

2. The Bunmis, a family of five, got N20,000 towards food and provisions for the family;

3. The Bayos, a family of seven, got N20,000 towards provisions and N30,000 to help with the family business;

4. The Collins, a family of six, got educational sponsorship (to the value of N100,000) for one of their kids (she is now enrolled in school and her 2nd term fees have been settled by FLA);

5. The Demolas, a family of four, got N50,000 towards clothing and food donations;

6. The Ekes, a family of seven, got N50,000 towards clothing and food donations;

7. The Fadekes, a family of five, got N50,000 towards their rent.

Regardless, we took our kids out to the Palms Shopping Mall ahead of Christmas, and gave them cash to get the gifts they really wanted, instead of us buying gifts for them this year.  A lot of them seemed to prefer this, while others were spoit for choice and said they'd prefer if we had gotten the gifts for them.  In addition, we sent money to each of the families we support, to help them with their needs over Christmas.  The total costs of these amounted to what we would have spent on a Christmas party (even more), and we hoped that the families would each put these donations to good use in getting the things they really need or just having an enjoyable Christmas.

So, what do you think?  To party or not to party?  Is it a good investment planning activities and events that will help our kids to forget about their troubles and feel loved, once in a while, or are the practical gifts really the way to go?  We'd really appreciate your feedback.

We'd also like to use this opportunity to say thanks for entrusting us with your hard-earned cash.  Really, thank you!  We really want to make the world a better place, and we are trying all we can to make the impact where we are.

God bless you, and have a fantastic 2020!

Links:

• Official Website
• Official Blog
• We are verified on Google!