By Abuja EPLF Fellows: Stephen Daniel, Nafisa Atiku-Adejuwon and Tukura John Daniel
In fulfillment of their civic engagement activity, the EPLF fellows in the persons of Stephen Daniel, Nafisa Atiku-Adejuwon, and Tukura John Daniel visited Lea Primary School in Kado estate to implement their Civic Engagement Activity. It was an engaging and interactive session with the students and the team clearly left an indelible impression on all participants concerned.
For the focus of the intervention, the team worked on education which is While engaging the young students regarding bad leadership; a young girl again SDG Goal 4, and teaching the participants – Leadership, Values in the context of Nation Building. One of the objectives of this training was to do a step-down training of a class the fellows had with Mr. Kunle Soriyan, a visionary, and thought leader.
Outcomes
During the step-down training, an 8-year-old girl told the facilitator that she knew we had bad leadership because young women were getting violated, people were being kidnapped and there was no security. This revealing and striking answer from a young girl revealed the deepening impacts of the failure of leadership as young children are aware and not spared from its destructive impacts.
The increasing level of inequality was also evident. The school is located in an estate that is quite middle-class in nature but the facilities were already falling into disrepair. There are no computers in the school, several children could not afford bags and sandals or pay their school fees. It is an area where the rich and the deeply poor live side by side; and speaks to the high level of inequality and multi-dimensional poverty that exists in Nigerian society.
The fellows were able to raise funds to pay for the fees of 27 students in the school, who would have dropped out if we didn’t intervene, and 110 Students were impacted by our Civic Engagement implementation.
Next Steps
Looking forward, we as citizens and as future leaders in our nation must strive to advocate, and create policies, interventions, and products that aim to include all the marginalized in our community. As Fellows, our subsequent steps will be to invest more in the lives of the students at LEA Primary school through donations and sponsorships, and certain needs of the school will be looked into like furnishing the computer lab.
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