NGO offers 5,000 students free education

An NGO, Lend a Hand for Africa (LAHAfrica), on Thursday said 5,000 students had benefited from its Scholarship Scheme in Nigeria in seven years.

Ms Abimbola Ajala, Founder/Executive Director, LAHAfrica, in a statement in Lagos, noted that the students had been educated up to junior secondary level.

Ajala said the aim of the NGO was to address inequality in education through educational programmes for low income children in Africa.

According to Ajala, the organisation is dedicated to giving children and young adults’ access to basic and quality education and to a complete reform in their lives.

“We have reached more than 5,000 students both directly and indirectly.”

“With seven years of continuous commitment, LAHAfrica has grown to become one of the few NGOs whose sole dedication and purpose is ensuring that every child in the slums is properly educated, given basic care and equal opportunity in life.”

“In 2015, we started the Scholarship Scheme Project, but we have been operating as a Not For Profit Organisation close to ten years (formerly known as Bimbo and friends).”

“We have provided a flexible and amazing environment for children and young adults under our care to have access to education through payment of tuition fees, provision of daily meals and provision of school essentials,” she said.

Ajala added that the students had a platform to engage and interact with them outside of school, which helped with interpersonal skills and trust between their team members and the beneficiaries.

She said LAHAfrica was designed to be a beacon of hope for children in the slums or with various impairment to dare to be different.

“We understand the menace of illiteracy in the system and how the ripple effect of being uneducated has led to prostitution, teenage pregnancy and cultism.”

“We are committed to contribute our quota to reduce this to the barest minimum,” she said.

The founder noted that the organisation currently had more than 20 children on the Scholarship Scheme whose lives had improved tremendously.

She said the impact and success could be seen on how different, unique and intelligent the beneficiaries had turned out to be.

“With the help of dedicated team and God, the beneficiaries have been given a reason to dream right and not be defined by the environment,” she said.

Ajala said the long-term plan of the NGO was to have more than 100 children on the Scholarship Scheme and build a standard LAHAfrica service centre for Skills Acquisition and training.

“LAHAfrica has an intentional support towards education issue and is committed to giving every child in the slums a structured and flexible access to quality education and opportunities, hence, improvement in way of life.”

“It believes in this cause and is proud of the milestone. We are determined to change the narrative, the story and lives surrounding it.”

“We want to build a home away from home for children and young adults in our care,” she said.