The slum2school project

If you have been socially conscious of recent you would have observed a trend of messages on twitter and colourful display pictures with smart-looking young ladies and guys promoting a cause to get under privileged children back to school. We learnt that the project which is tagged “The Slum2school” is a project which caters for less privileged kids by providing them with free basic education and other psycho-social needs. It is barely 7 months old but has already been recognized and partnered with both governmental and non-governmental organizations. It recently won a series of prestigious awards for its tremendous effort and the impact it has made in society within a short period of time since its inception.  We finally caught up with the founder of the project Otto Orondaam, an award-winning social development advocate and social entrepreneur. Although he was very busy with some volunteers on a verification exercise for children who are beneficiaries of the project, we were able to get him to share a few information about the uniqueness of this project and what has made it gain tremendous recognition and support from hundreds of volunteers and organizations.

ELOHOR OMONEMU:  Finally it is great chatting with you, some people have heard about the slum2school project, but don’t fully understand what it’s about. Tell us what it’s all about, and what you’ve done so far.

Orondaam Otto: I do appreciate the fact that you came this far to reach us. In very simple language, I will say that the Slum2School Project is an Educational intervention to solve one of Nigeria’s biggest challenges. Statistics show that over 10 million children who are of school age are currently out of school across the nation and we believe that poses a very big threat to the economic, security and social image of the country. And if we don’t begin to solve this problem now, it will only get worse and we will all be at danger. We as a team and network of young people believe that social or community development isn’t just the responsibility of the government or corporate organizations. As individuals we also need to be socially responsible and that is what we have been doing.  So many young volunteers sacrifice their time and energy to spend time with these children. It really is amazing and to me it tells a lot, that indeed there is hope for our Nation.

E.O: How did it all start, what was the inspiration?

Orondaam Otto: That’s one question I love to dodge (laughs), I have always been passionate about social change and leaving the world better than I found it. Amazingly over 80% of my friends share the same passion and goal. I can’t tell why but I have always found myself around serious and responsible young people. We live in an underdeveloped society, one that is far from perfect and rather than criticize what the government isn’t doing right we could also assist in doing what is meant to be rightly done. The Slum2school Project is still a very young project and we have had over 15 major community advocacy campaigns on education, with focus on girl child education, health and medical missions, training on maternity health and anti-malaria campaigns including environmental sanitation in slums and we have also partnered with over 10 reputable organizations including the Lagos State Education Board, LEAP Africa, International Federation of Women Lawyers, Bethesda Child Support, E-Green etc. We currently have 118 disadvantaged children who are beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme and have provided educational materials and health support to all these children and caregivers.

E.O: What project are you currently undertaking?

Orondaam Otto: After the first phase of the project in Makoko community were we enrolled 118 children into 3 schools, we had massive interest from the community and we decided to train the community youths as Community Based Volunteers and together we are working tirelessly to provide educational scholarships and other psycho-social support to 200 more children by October 2012. We are also making plans for other interventions and forthcoming projects.

E.O: How do you raise funds/ get sponsorship and get volunteers?

Orondaam Otto: First of all I want to commend the efforts of the project volunteers because what they are doing is totally unmatchable and they have contributed immensely to the success of the project so far. We have worked with over 500 amazing young volunteers in the last  6 months, and these are young people who sacrifice their time, money and resources to come into the slum and support the project in return for personal fulfillment  because they go home satisfied knowing that they have made an impact in a child’s life and contributed towards national development. We use Social media to generate funds and it is being powered by our amazing volunteer team. And talking about how we get these volunteers, funny enough over 80% of them are my friends whom I have known personally for years and as we go on they introduce their friends and the network keeps getting larger.

E.O: What are the challenges you have faced so far, surely it hasn’t been a rosy ride all along?

Orondaam Otto:  Wow! I can write a book on the challenges I’ve faced because they never seem to end. First of all, it felt weird to my family and friends that I was going to resign from the bank and reject other good job offers even when they were available. For me I just wanted to do what will bring me fulfillment and see that these kids could have basic education. They are all vulnerable and some of them are orphans. So it bothered me a lot and I had to make the difficult decision which came with so many oppositions. I finally had a few friends who began to support me and I remain very grateful to them, my mum also always prayed for me and today I can say that decision to resign from the bank has been the biggest decision which I am proud I made.

Other challenges involved funding, I started it all with my savings and at some point I got totally broke because there wasn’t a week I didn’t visit the community once or twice. It was capital-intensive and at some point I felt somewhat discouraged and I always asked myself why I was actually doing this. But I couldn’t find any other thing more fulfilling so I was stuck in the box. Eventually I had friends who began to volunteer and began supporting and we launched an online fundraising campaign which helped us get money to enroll all the 118 children into 3 schools for free. They have been many other challenges but I will just leave it at that.

E.O:  Would you mind sharing how much was raised then and for people and corporate bodies that want to volunteer their time/support slum2school financially and in other ways, how can they go about it?

Orondaam Otto: Sure, why not? (He laughs again). I am always very open in all I do because we live in a country where everyone believes that the next man is corrupt and we must try to bring back that trust even if no one is perfect. One of the first things we did was to look for a very trusted, more experienced and reputable organization to partner with. We finally did series of research and discovered Bethesda Child Support Agency which provides scholarships for disadvantaged children and have about four free schools in poor communities. It is owned by much respected individuals and also run by professional and accountable staff.  We wrote to them and seeing the vision we had, they agreed to partner with us and provided technical and other professional support.

I didn’t want to have anything to do with the funds directly so they opened a new account and the signatories remain their top board members. We were able to raise about Six Hundred thousand naira during that fundraising and it was a great start for us. As result of our accountability and sincere actions we got one of our first awards by the Founder of the Organization for excellence in our actions. I always appreciate them because they gave us a shoulder to lie on.

E.O: Tell us about the awards that slum2school has won.

Orondaam Otto: It has been really amazing seeing how far we have come in the last few months and the awards have been coming in like a running tap.  The Slum2School has won the Lagos State Honours Award, The Nigerian CSR Awards (SERAs), Community Shield Awards (Generation Leaders), The Future Awards 2012 for Innovation in Education, and Winner of African Sustainable Solution Showcase (AR-CSR). It has also been nominated for the MDG Presidential Awards/Honours coming up soon and has received over 12 commendation letters from several individuals and corporate bodies.

09. In just about 7 months, six Awards? Wow! That seems to be more than what some football clubs can boast of (Everyone laughs). How does this feel for you and your team?

Orondaam Otto: The award goes to the amazing volunteer team because there is nothing as great as having friends who believe not just in your vision but also want to be part of a changing generation. Most of them even have more energy and vigor than I do. The truth remains that we are driven by the fact that we want to make our Nation a better place and so we never get distracted or relent. Awards are good because they make people aware and know that others are actually doing something right and I always appreciate the organizers of the awards because for each acknowledgement, it provides another platform for us to create bigger impacts.

E.O: Congratulations to you Otto Orondaam, it’s been a real pleasure having this chat with you and finally can you tell us about the future of the project and your advice to other young people who will read this.

Orondaam Otto: The Slum2School Project is designed to contribute to the realization of the 2nd Millennium Development Goal in Nigeria which is achieving Universal Basic Education. We have designed a very innovative and achievable framework and we will be launching it soon by God’s grace. We however look forward to more support, volunteers and donors for who believe in our vision and will be willing to make it a success. It is a sacrifice for disadvantaged children and a sacrifice for posterity. Young people should stand up for the right thing and should be ready to make sacrifices if we really want our Nation to be very great. I’ve always loved the saying that ”if you are not part of the solution, then you are the problem itself”. I am always willing to learn and I believe that Nigeria is getting better and will be great someday. Thank you.

Thank you Orondaam, it’s been a real pleasure having this chat with you.

Slum2school is presently having a 12 day campaign to raise 6 million naira to sponsor 200 less privileged kids, this is a continuation of what started a couple of months ago in which 118 kids benefited from in the first phase, money was raised and through the efforts of volunteers and other agencies, a hundred and eighteen kids were picked from the Makoko community and sent to school.

So here’s the breakdown…….each child needs just 30,000 naira for a school year, this includes the cost of learning materials, school uniforms, bags, lunch pack, water bottle, exercise and textbooks, stationery  pairs of sandals, sports canvass, under wears, medical support and other psycho-social support the child might need during the year. We do have very accountable structures and procedures for utilization which I don’t even control nor have access to. You can choose to sponsor a child by donating 30,000 naira or even support more than one child or you can get 30 friends to donate one thousand naira each or 15 friends to pay two thousand naira each. No amount is too small or big. Besides volunteers and sponsors will also join us during the evaluation, mentorship and monitoring stage which comes up after the enrollment ceremony.

Funds can be paid into this account

Name –Bethesda child support/slum2school project

Account no-1012994165

Bank – any zenith bank around you

For more information, follow @slum2school, @otto_orondaam on twitter, visit http://www.communityimpactng.wordpress.com or call +234 806 347 7974.

Help make our country a better place, sponsor a child today! Together we can make the difference.