Educate and Train 100 Disadvantaged Children

There's a Bible story that is popularly told in Churches to encourage people to give sacrificially, and trust God to meet their own needs.  It's the story of the widow, who in a time of famine, used her last oil and flour to make cakes for the prophet Elijah.  That was all she had left, and she gave it believing his word that until the famine was over, the oil and flour would never run out.  For those who believe the Bible, this is a very powerful story about faith and giving.

At this time, we find the story particularly inspiring and motivating.  We are trying to inspire our Kids to see themselves as givers, and not just receivers.  We believe that we are all blessed so we can bless others.  And our Kids are blessed, because we have blessed them with our blessings, and they have something they too can give to others...however little.

That is why, when we were approached by Give Food Stamps Initiative to use their platform to raise funding for our children in the form of food stamps, we thought our Kids don't need this hand out...  They are doing better than a lot of the poor people in their community, who do not have our support to attend school.  Maybe they would be interested in raising the funds for those in their communities.  Maybe it's time for them to be proactive about giving back, and paying it forward.

So, we are organising a special Children's Day event on the 26th of May, to raise funds for those less fortunate.  Our Kids are working together with our Volunteers to raise awareness and donations of cash and items for sale to the community at Gbara, Lekki, to give back the proceeds in the form of food stamps to 300+ people in their local communities.  We are having our planning meeting this Saturday, 12th May at 11am, but have already begun to spread the word, inviting people to donate items for sale on that day.  If you're in Lagos, we'd love for you to join us!

Our Kids are excited about this fundraiser.  Ramon, our fine artist, will have his works on display for sale.  Favour will have her beads to display.  Dami makes bags, and we are hopeful that she will have some to sell too.  There are so many talents that our Kids have, and we hope that they also realise their potential, through this event.

In other news, the children enjoyed the Valentine's Brunch we held for them this year, and more of our children brought gifts to share with each other.  Those who gave thoughtful gifts were nominated by the recipients, and rewarded with special gifts from us.  This is also our way of teaching them to be generous givers.

Also, recently, we were approached by a Church, who wanted to know if we could take on a family of five that had come to them in need of urgent shelter.  It's not really something we do, as we no longer run a Home.  We also don't have unallocated funding, but we decided to collaborate with the Church and give the family respite.  And we were glad we did.

While with us, we assessed the four children for enrolment in our Disadvantage to Advantage Initiative, and found out that three of them qualify for sponsorship.  They have now joined our waiting list for donors.  We sent out an appeal on Instagram and we are hopeful that a good samaritan will answer the call to support this family too.  If you are interested in sponsoring this family, or one of their three children through our child sponsorship programme, please email us at support@fairlifeafrica.org.  Thanks so much!

We are all challenged to give, even when we feel we have nothing left to give.  Quite often, we are failing to think outside the box, and consider a resource we assume is not valuable to us, let alone others.  But God sees our potential, and asks, like He asked Moses in the Burning Bush - "What's that in your hand?"

Thanks for your generous gifts and blessings!

Links:

• Official Website
• Read About Our Valentine's Celebration
• Follow Us On Instagram

• The Real Give Back Sale Flyer (PDF)
  

A wise man once said, "If you are in the little things, you will be faithful with much...  And if you are not faithful with the small things, who will trust you with more?" - (Luke 16:10-12).  We couldn't agree more.  As an organisation, we endeavour to keep good, accurate and transperent accounts, because we know that if we are faithful at this level, when we are entrusted with more, we will not be ashamed.

We also realise that we are still in the days of small beginnings, even though we celebrated our seventh year this January.  We do not yet boast of great numbers or great achievements, but we remain faithful in the small things that will overtime make a significant impact.  Our work is not glamourous, but through our faithfulness over two dozen under-privileged children currently enrolled in our Disadvantage to Advantage Initiative, get to have a good education, and four others are supported with their artistic vocational studies.

We celebrate little things like being able to settle their school fees, exam fees and equip them with study materials.  Our social workers continue to carry out assessments on new children referred to us to see if any qualify to join our waiting list.  In the last six months, five children were taken off our waiting list and are now being sponsored in their education.  Ayomide is the newest, and was enrolled in January.

Our social workers also visit the children at school and call their homes often to check that they are doing well.  One of our children's parents had a medical emergency in January and, even though we hadn't finished settling fees, we gave the urgent support needed.  Thankfully, that same day, the funds needed to balance school fees and other expenses came in unexpectedly!  Even that small blessing was a cause for jubilation!

Some of our children are doing better than others.  One of them, Christopher, has now been graduated from our programme.  He has completed his Secondary schooling with the support of Shiv Lila Polymers, his sponsors.  He passed his WAEC exams well the first time.  He is now doing a Diploma course in Economics, and his parents are in a better position to take care of their family!  We are happy that we were there when they needed us.  We are also re-assessing other children in receipt of sponsorship, to see if we can make room for those who have been on our waiting list for years, as we are blessed to have faithful sponsors, who believe in our work with these less fortunate children.

At Christmas time, we took our children on an outing to the Piccadilly Suites, where they had a small party by the pool and swam.  It was a change from the Christmas parties we normally have at our centre, and they had a really good time.  CSR-in-Action also joined us to make the event more special.  We wrote about it on our blog: Thank You For A Merry Christmas.

We are now preparing for Valentine's Day, and will be hosting another Brunch for the children, which is always a chance for them to come together, have fun and hopefully meet their sponsors too.  This year, our children will also be exchanging gifts that they bought or made for themselves.  The children who give the most thoughtful gifts will also receive gifts from us.  If you are around, do join us in Lagos, at our office in Lekki on Saturday, the 17th of February.

We are so thankful to have your support.  It keeps us encouraged and motivated.  God bless you and help you to be faithful in the little things that count too.

Links:

• Official Website
• Official Blog
• Official Page