Following the prevalent rate of out-of-school children in different parts of the country, a non governmental organisation, Springs Aid Foundation, has launched an academic programme in Bwari Area Council of Abuja, termed “Boko na Light” (Education is light).
According to the founder of the NGO, Comrade Kenneth Emeka Chima, the programme is targeted at taking children of school age off the street and enrolling them in schools; in order for them to be able to acquire western education and then grow up to pursue different careers, whether in the formal or informal sectors of the economy.
While addressing newsmen Thursday in Abuja on the activities of the Foundation, Chima said that the NGO has been in existence since 2015, but was formally registered in 2019 with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), with many volunteers indicating interest in contributing their quota to the education of little children “no matter how meager the resources”.
He said that about 70 pupils are presently registered with the Foundation and are being taught by four teachers (as at March 12, 2020), with many parents still indicating interest in registering their children, though the Foundation is presently faced with the problem of accommodating the pupils in a two-room apartment that was donated by the village chief as a form of encouragement.
He said: “Springs Aid Foundation is a product of self motivation and determination to take children off the street and enroll them in schools. Education entails a lot. Boko means “book”, but the term has become notorious for the nefarious activities of insurgents in the North East. Therefore, we want to change the narrative by giving education to children so that they can see the light, because insecurity can be traced to deficit in education.
“Just by interacting with the children, some of them want to be pilots, engineers and what have you. However, with the right support, we plan to expand to many areas of Abuja and beyond in order to reach more children and take them off the street for a better tomorrow. We have a lot of plans for the children, but sponsorship is our major challenge. We have been running the Foundation with our personal savings, so imagine what it will look like if we get sponsorship from government and well meaning Nigerians to advance our cause.”
