Sponsor 10 Nigerian Women into a Tech Career

When Reuben and I started Direct Impact Empowerment Foundation, there was no website, no funding, and no guarantee anyone would show up. It was Christmas 2023. We loaded a wheelbarrow with rice and basic food items and went to families in Ibadan who had nothing. Sixteen families. That was where DIEF began.

I am writing this to tell you how far we have come since that day, and where we are going next.

From 16 families to 300 people

By Easter 2026, we were reaching over 300 people across a single distribution. What started as unbranded bags of rice in 2023 became fully branded DIEF packaging by 2024, every item carrying our name and website, every bag a visible sign that someone cared enough to show up. Our co-founder Reuben Eka coordinates everything on the ground in Ibadan, and his work is at the heart of every distribution we have done.

In 2024 we delivered those branded bags from a car with no window. That is not a complaint. That is what commitment looks like before the funding arrives.

Along the way we onboarded a grandmother in 2024 who had been managing a small charcoal business with almost nothing. We walked with her. We delivered charcoal stock to help her keep trading. Her granddaughter comes with her to our distributions. These are not statistics. These are people we know by name.

The hospital reality no one talks about

In Nigeria, people die from treatable conditions because hospitals demand payment before they will act. We are talking about amounts as small as $40 or $50. DIEF holds accounts with two private hospitals in Ibadan so that any beneficiary who needs care can walk in and be treated without being turned away at the door. No one in our network should die waiting for money that is not coming.

Now we are training women into tech careers

The food distributions were never the whole picture. They were Stage One, crisis response. What we have always been building toward is economic independence.

This year, we launched the Dignity to Independence Programme. DIEF sponsors vulnerable Nigerian women to train in Identity and Access Management and Governance, Risk and Compliance, delivered by a CISSP-certified practitioner with a decade of experience in tier-one financial institutions. Students receive full course access, fortnightly support, a CV rewrite, and mock interview sessions that continue until they secure their first role. The student pays nothing. One sponsorship costs $500 and delivers over $1,300 in real value.

Before our sponsored cohort even scaled, a paying student who trained with us independently sent this message:

"All courses I purchased from you is 10/10. Even the TikTok content 10/10, it really helped me. I have been offered a job as an IDAM engineer."

The training works. Now we need the funding to make it free.

On July 15, your donation goes further

GlobalGiving Bonus Day runs for 24 hours from July 15 at 10am EDT to July 16 at 10am EDT. Every donation made during that window is eligible for a share of $150,000 in incentive funds. Donations of $100 and above qualify for incentive matching.

$500 sponsors one woman from zero to employed. But any amount moves us forward.

Thank you for being part of this.