Education support: NGO partners financial institution

The Destiny Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has supported 300 children to enrol in government-owned primary schools in Ibadan and Ibarapa, Oyo State.

The Destiny Trust, in partnership with Stanbic IBTC Bank’s IT Department, supported children across seven schools serving over 150 low-income communities.

Speaking on the importance of the partnership, the co-founder and coordinator of The Destiny Trust, Mr. Abimbola Ojenike, said working with Stanbic IBTC provides an important opportunity to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

He said: “We know that reaching 1,000 children at this point is only a tiny drop among millions of children who need this support. But we are happy that this partnership with Stanbic IBTC improves our capacity to reach more children with our firm conviction on the importance of education.

“No child should be out of school, and with partnerships like this that are focused on shared interests, we can continue to work tirelessly to spread our message of education for all children across the nation.

“Over the years, we have been committed to the continued support of children from poor communities through our back-to-school enrolment initiatives. We are helping to eliminate the barriers that keep children of the extreme poor out of school by providing them with the tools they need to stay in school.

“We understand that our approach in Oyo State might be a little different, but our interest is the same, irrespective of where we go. We want children to go and stay in school. We want to address the bewildering, high statistics of out-of-school children in Nigeria by ensuring that children who do not meet the requirements for school enrolment can have access to basic school needs to stay in school.

“In recent months, we have seen the increasing effects of insecurities in Nigeria and how school children have been targets of kidnapping. The motivation to stay in school is thin and that is why we chose to go to schools in places like Igangan to celebrate the resilience of children who are determined to continue to go to school, despite the challenges and attacks in recent times.

“Seeing the palpable excitement of the children at the sight of the school kits and writing materials indicated to us why we must never take this for granted.”

The back-to-school drive of The Destiny Trust in Oyo State is one of several outreaches by the organisation to support 1,000 children across Nigeria for the 2021/2022 academic session.

Within the past weeks, underprivileged children in Lagos, Abuja, and Kaduna have also been supported with school bags, shoes, uniforms, books, and other writing materials.

The final train of the education support project for 2021 will stop in Kpambo, Taraba State, where the NGO hopes to donate school materials and renovate classrooms in an adopted school to improve the quality of learning for disadvantaged children.

The Destiny Trust has impacted over 17,000 vulnerable children since inception in 2012 through social intervention programmes, including the provision of learning materials and support through school enrolment.

The organisation also runs residential learning centres for children in Lagos, Ibadan and Igbo Ora where children are provided with feeding, education and equipped with technological, vocational and music skills.

At least 3,500 children have benefitted from the back-to-school initiative organised by The Destiny Trust in the last five years.