The N100-a-day-charity-school initiative, which provides several children whose parents could not afford public and private school education in Abuja to go to school, was inspired by the experience in participating in the US International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the proprietor of the charity project, Kingsley Bangwell, said.
Bangwell, who spoke at the maiden IVLP Members Connect event in Abuja on at the weekend, said his participation in the IVLP trip to the United States in 2012 opened his eyes to how well-meaning Nigeria could use their resources to help change the future of some less privileged Nigerians to have a better future through the provision of basic education.
The IVLP is the initiative of the United States Embassy in Nigeria through which professionals from all walks of life are selected every year and on an all-expenses paid visit to major cities and institutions in the United States during which period participants meet and interact with current and prospective American leaders and learn about their socio-economic, political systems, processes and cultures.
Bangwell attended the IVLP “Freedom of Belief and Expression in 2012”.
During the programme, Bangwell said he, along with other participants from Africa and other continents, visited a number of American cities, including the capital, Washington DC, Texas and another city.
He said, “Our team included Professor Pat Utomi, Hon Abike Dabiri, Sen Shehu Sani, Linda Ikeji and others.
“We visited many public institutions, including tertiary institutions and schools. At the schools, we met with American teenagers aged between 16 ans18 years who engaged us in very rich and robust intellectual conversations.
“We were so baffled that on one of the rides back to the hotel, Prof Pat Utomi wondered if teenagers, and even graduates, back home in Nigeria, could hold such deep and engaging conversations like them.”
He said those experiences during the three weeks trip left an indelible impression on his mind and inspired a desire for him to do something on their return back home about Nigerian education, as it dawned on him that quality education as a vital key to nation-building and citizens’ productivity was not being given sufficient attention.
“On my return to Nigeria, I continued to hold several youth leadership workshops and debates, to raise their intellectual skills and awareness. But Io was particularly concerned about out-of-school children.
“Personally I was a serial school drop out, because my parents could not afford education from public school for me. I spent eight years in primary school, nine years in secondary school, and dropped out of University twice all due to poverty.
“So each time I see kids cleaning my car windscreen, I am broken, because I know that without education and that ability to read and write, their future is dim.
“So after years of planning, and due to the impact of that IVLP experience, in 2019, my wife and I started the KNOSK N100-A-Day Charity school for out of school children, to help reduce the menace in our society, where about 19million children are now out of school due to poverty.
“The initiative, with N100 every day, students get books, uniforms, lunch, sportwears, monthly sanitary pads for girls and computer-based education.
“The actual school fees is N66,000 per term, but parents pay only N6,000, and we raise the remaining N60,000 from compassionate individuals and organisations.
“Today, we have about 82 children on our register. We admit 60 percent girls, because 55 percent of girls don’t complete secondary school in Nigeria before they are married.
About 33 of the children are currently under full sponsorship and the rest have partial or no sponsorship,” Bangwell said.
He told the gathering of mostly IVLP alumni that his major testimonial, which highlights the impact of the IVLP, was that children from the school who never had access to computers before can now operate computers, use Microsoft Word and doing Scratch and learning coding.
“Many who could not speak and write well, are now building confidence to speak and regularly moderate events! Am seeing a replica of what I saw during the IVLP visit to the US 10 years ago,” he said.
“Our vision is to build our first KNOSK N100-School in Kuje, Abuja to cater for up to 400 out of school children, and to establish seven of such schools across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria by 2030, to serve thousands of poor children who cant go to school, “he added.
The President of the IVLP Alumni Association, Raheemat Momodu, said the event was organised by his executive to provide the opportunity for members who participated in the programme at different times since it began to come together, meet, greet, interact and share ideas and experiences gained from the programme.
Momodu said at this time in Nigeria’s political history that seems the country was lacking quality leadership, IVLP alumni could rely on their experiences to add value to the emerging political dispensation.
The Vice President of the association, Baraka Sani, said his experience in her participation in the IVLP gave the leverage she harnessed to emerge as one women leaders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during its recent party congress in Abuja.
Sani called on members to continue to take advantage of the benefits of the IVLP to contribute to the growth and development of the country in whatever position they find themselves.
The General Secretary, Ngozi John-Uyah, in her secretariat said since the current executive committee of the association assumed office almost two years ago, about 13 professional cluster groups have been established to help generate ideas and work out strategies on the advancement of different sectors of the economy, including communication, ICT, environment, health, leadership and national development.
She said the executive is planning to host its annual leadership forum tentatively scheduled for September, to provide a forum for members to share their experiences from their participation in the IVLP for the betterment of the country.
