As the founder of a consulting firm devoted to training young
adults in business competence, Oluwasemiye Michael Larayetan readies a new
generation for leadership. AYEM, African Youth Empowerment Movement, has been
providing business training in Abuja, Nigeria since 2000. For the last eight
years, though, Semiye Michael has gone farther….literally. He formed the
OneKidProject, working to educate rural children who live far away from city
life.
With the help of my wife, voluteers and donors, I'm working to give an
abandoned generation a personal voice of emancipation and self-identity.
I started the OneKidProject to meet challenges impeding education in the rural
villages in Abuja Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. We want to identify the
most vulnerable children and find funding sources to educate them. We provide
rural children with tuition fees, school uniforms, learning materials and
spiritual support.
Parental counseling is another critical part of our work. Getting parents to
believe that education is an essential tool for human development is an ongoing
challenge. Rural Nigerians have inherited a culture where formal education is
not valued. They have little or no explanation about why they should value
learning, and some don’t believe they need to improve their way of life for
themselves and their children.
I want to help educate these rural children because we cannot leave people in
darkness and expect them to walk in light. The future of these rural
communities depends on expanding their capabilities and opportunities. These
kids will become adults, taking calculated decisions about growth in their
communities. Preparing these youngsters for that challenge with education will
change their history and culture.
“One Kid Project” was a funding plan and not a name in the beginning. Friends
and family started giving financial backing when I told them they could provide
help for “just one kid.” Annual support of one child is about 5000 Nigerian
naira [$26.30 US]. Then we found the slogan was an effective way to convince
people that even small donations are valued. Soon enough, we got many people
helping just one kid.
Another reason I began this: it bothered my heart that government and other
civil society organizations provide minimal support to rural areas for social
or infrastructure development. These organizations and agencies complain
greatly about the terrain one must cross to reach these villages and may use
that as an excuse to say greater support can’t be delivered.
But my volunteers and I travel to these places for the OneKidProject. Some of
the closest villages are reached in three hours driving. A new volunteer is offering
an all-terrian vehicle for transport, but we use motorcycles mostly and paddle
canoes to reach villages that are surrounded by rivers. Some are inaccessible
during raining seasons.
Even while coping with the risky and challenging adventure, we have been able
to team up with the few teachers in these villages to improve their methods,
and allow accommodation of new children without creating an excess workload for
the available teachers.
Health problems are another challenge for these children. In one village, some
of our students became sick from bilharzia [Schistosomiasis]. This is a
parasitic disease, spread by snails in contaminated water, and it makes the
children ill with diarhhea and vomiting. Some can even die.
OneKidProject launched an advocacy campaign about this health threat. That
brought a national television station to the village for a video story they
broadcast. The news coverage caught the attention of other organizations, and
we’re hoping that we may get help to build a borehole [well] for the village.
We have 120 kids from five villages receiving school fees from the
OneKidProject. Our rural kids are learning English little by little. Seeing the
improvement in these children, other parents now want to enroll their own kids
for schooling.
The OneKidProject goal is to provide 50 kids full sponsorship yearly, with a
few others receiving more limited support, in the form of books, school bags or
sandals.
If democracy will do human beings any good, education remains the vehicle to
that destination. That's what I am doing with these children.
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