Well after 9 days in a small room with a double bed for the three of us, a secure but small compound that you cant go out of…we have moved to a new place!!! The previous place is the one we typically stay at when we come in an out of Abuja, but as funds are tight right now, we opted to share a room, and even with that the space in the compound is small and the expenses add up after that many days! Remember it is not cheap to live here, many things are the equivalent of home in Canada. So we had a close friend of a close friend of mine, offer for us to come and stay in his house with him! It is in a large secure and gated housing area so we can go for walks, and the house is wonderful, we have our own rooms and bathrooms and a kitchen to cook our own food. So we are living together with the other people in the house; it is good to be in fellowship with others! We also have use of the second car in the house and a driver. We moved here just yesterday (Saturday) and will be here until we go down to the village. Still hoping for our paperwork to be ready on Wed. In the meanwhile we are setting up some more meetings with key people, government groups, and embassies for this week.
Last two days have been busy and productive. We have met with the South African and Japanese Embassies finding out good information regarding support for grassroots projects. We have had our letters of introduction passed on from the individuals we met and spoke with to their boards as well as some Nigerian businesses and retired politicians that these embassy individuals are in contact with. We are happy with those meetings. We also have had some meetings with individuals that are in strong networking positions for us. We have been receiving strong verbal support and encouragement for our strength and courage to be working in Nigeria, alas we have not received and financial support yet. Steve and Peter spent time yesterday looking at some vehicles as it is imperative we have one as soon as possible. Catherine and I went with a good friend of mine Kayode, to meet with someone who has a children’s home running up here. We were able to hear wonderful ideas and support from them as to how they set up and run. We then went and visited the home! It currently has seven orphans that are in between 8 and 15yrs old and it is run by a young couple and their baby who are the house parents! These children are well under the typical size for their ages, due to the trauma they have experienced. The psychological effects from the traumas they have gone through directly relate to growth and development in children. It was wonderful to meet them all, spending time speaking with each of them and being shown around their place. Great insights from the couple as to how they work with these children. We also visited a public/government funded children’s home that has 56 children from 0-18. While it is wonderful that these children have shelter/food/and schooling, the conditions and program are sadly lacking.
Hey everyone,
We arrived safe and sound in Abuja, no missed flights and only a slight delay leaving London. We were greeted quickly after getting off the plane by a new immigration official who promptly took our papers/passports and let us go collect our luggage. Unfortunately there was a problem getting everyone’s luggage off the plane so that made for a LONG and crowded wait with lots of pushing. Eventually we got all our bags and papers and walked quickly through customs without having our bag contents checked. Our previous driver from March was there with Peter to greet us and take us to our regular accommodations in Abuja.
In the past four days we have seemed to get a lot done (as well as catching up on sleep when the rain is too much to go out). We have met with our Lawyer several times to continue processing our paper work. As of today it should be officially completed in one weeks time and we will receive our certificate of incorporation. YAY! We also met with the Comptroller of Immigration, who explained how expatriate quotas work and what will work best for us and our volunteers. He took our passports today and will extend all our visa’s and have them ready by tomorrow. YAY! We met with the South African Embassy’s First Secretary and introduced ourselves and handed out our first letters explaining the Foundation and project goals. He was very helpful in saying he would pass our letters to the former Governor of Abia State whom he was dining with that night, as well as to some of the Embassy executives and board at the upcoming Nelson Mandela Day Celebrations.
So now we await getting our passports back as we need them to enter any of the embassies, and we wait for the final meeting with our lawyer tomorrow for the last signatures. (PS. visit the FB page – The Wanted Children Foundation, and our Instagram – twcf, to keep up on new little blurbs of info and pictures!)
Phone call from the High Commission at 6am this morning saying there was a mistake made, that our two other volunteers should not have had their visa denied, and to send their passports in again right away to get their visas! Haha, sigh… what can you do. SO, the dates where already changed but at least for sure now John and Leonie will be joining us in three weeks time for three weeks!
In the meanwhile the three of us going now will spend sometime in the capital city working through different paperwork and meetings to help on all fronts of the projects. Keep us in your prayers lots of big things need to happen.
Well, there has been a slight change in plans.
John and Leonie, the two individuals who were joining us on this trip, received their passports back from the Nigerian High Commission in Ottawa on Friday, with no visas. While this is extremely frustrating and changes our initial trip plans, it reminds us that we must continually roll with the punches, as things will never happen according to our timeline. We trust that God has an answer to the “why” questions and we will constantly wait for the right doors to open.
So, the new plan is that the three of us who are arriving in Nigeria this week, will spend time in the capital city sorting through immigration paperwork and invitation letters, with the plan that John and Leonie will be joining us in three weeks time. We will also be finalizing our official documents for establishing the Nigerian branch of TWCF in Nigeria. With that done we are able to legally accept children into the home, invite our own volunteers to come over, as well as hopefully apply for grants and designated project monies available through the many embassies represented in Abuja (the capital city of Nigeria).
The team leaves in 6 days. There is a mass amount of scrambling on everyone’s part to do last minute things before the trip.
The majority of these things are coming down to find every last penny we can to help cover re-opening costs of the Aine Adaeze Home and then maintain costs as children come to live in it.
After a last Board meeting before the trip, some numbers were crunched and a budget looked at.
We are going to be looking at $4000-$5000 a month for running/living costs of the home. This is based on the numbers of 6 six children, 3 staff and two security living in the home. The amount for the first couple months will be higher as there are start-up costs involved. Also, we have specific one-time items that will need to be purchased if anyone is interested in knowing what they are and taking them on for us.
As the budget becomes more clear, I will post more accurate numbers in a break down for everyone to see.
At this point we are looking for individuals, families, farms, companies, businesses, bands, ect. to come together and ‘Buy’ us a month to keep going. We are also asking if people can commit to at least $1 a day ($30 per month) and support us that way.
We have Auto-debit forms where you can commit to biweekly or once a month for a year, or Paypal on the Donate page for different one-off amounts.
PLEASE contact us ASAP if you can help before we leave, or use the Donate Page.
In Nigeria, malaria is the leading cause of under-five mortality contributing 33% of all childhood deaths and 25% infant mortality. As a child will typically be sick of malaria between 3–4 times in one year, the disease is a major cause of absenteeism in school-aged children, thus impeding their educational and social development [5] and subsequently robbing the country of its future human resources.
taken from a research article entitled:
Utilization of Insecticide-Treated Nets by Under-Five Children in Nigeria: Assessing Progress Towards the Abuja Targets
by: Olusola B Oresanya1*, Moshe Hoshen2 and Olayemi T Sofola3
- * Corresponding author: Olusola B Oresanya
1 National Malaria Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, 2nd Floor, Yobe House, First Avenue, Off Shehu Shagari Way, Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria
2 Hebrew University – Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel
3 National Malaria Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, 2nd Floor, Yobe House, First Avenue, Off Shehu Shagari Way, Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria
We are currently looking for individuals willing to donate $25 or more to purchase one complete set of children’s clothing. We will be receiving six children next month, July. Knowing that there are hundreds of children in our immediate area, we are very excited to begin the process of making a difference, one child at a time! In-take assessments will initially be done on over 20 children, and six of the most needy will be selected. Starting small and doing it right is extremely important ! You can go to the donate page and click on a button that represents the number of outfits you will purchase. Pass this information on to others so they can be a part of this wonderful opportunity too. Thank you everyone!
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Nigeria is home to seven percent (7%) of the total languages spoken on earth. Taraba state alone has more languages than 30 African countries. The importance of this fact is appreciated when one understands that language is the “soul of culture” (as Ngugi wa Thiongo famously said). It is language that births the proverbs, riddles, stories and other aspects of culture that give us identity. UNESCO puts forward that the world’s languages represents an extraordinary wealth of creativity. Linguistic diversity correlates with cultural diversity. This means Nigeria can look inwards and drive itself to become the greatest hub for cultural tourism on earth, and consequently empower its citizens tremendously in the process.
The Walls of Benin (800-1400AD), in present day Edo State, are the longest ancient earthworks in the world, and probably the largest man-made structure on earth. They enclose 6500 square kilometers of community lands that connected about 500 communities. At over 16000km long, it was thought to be twice the length of the Great Wall of China, until it was announced in 2012 (after five years of meticulous measurement by Chinese surveyors) that the Great Wall is about 21,000km long.
The Yoruba tribe has the highest rate of twin births in the world. Igbo-Ora, a little town in Oyo state, has been nicknamed Twin capital of the World because of its unusually high rate of twins that is put as high as 158 twins per 1000 births. In a video I watched last year on YouTube presented by Titi (a white lady who speaks Yoruba), and which was centred on twin births in Igbo-Ora, one of the locals boasted that every family in the town has at least one twin!
Sarki Muhammad Kanta The Great of Kebbi, was the only ruler who resisted control by Songhai, West Africa’s greatest empire at that time. He founded and ruled the Hausa city-state of Kebbi around 1600 A.D and built Surame its capital, a planned city which was almost impossible to penetrate during war. In fact UNESCO describes Surame as “one of the wonders of human history, creativity and ingenuity”, and probably the most massive stone-walled constructions in West Africa. He is listed in Robin Walker’s 50 Greatest Africans.
Africa’s oldest known boat is The Dufuna canoe which was discovered in Dufuna village, Yobe state, by a Fulani Herdsman in May 1987, while he dug a well. Various radio-carbon tests conducted in laboratories of reputable universities in Europe and America indicate that the canoe is over 8,000 years old, thus making it the oldest in Africa and 3rd oldest in the world. The discovery of the canoe has completely changed accepted theories of the history and sophistication of marine technology in Africa.
Sungbo’s Eredo, a 160 km rampart equipped with guard houses and moats, is reputed to be the largest single pre-colonial monument (or ancient fortification if you like) in Africa. It is located in present-day Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and when it was built a millennium ago, it required more earth to be moved during construction than that used for building the Great Pyramid of Giza (one of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World). The most astonishing thing is that Sungbo’s Eredo was the biggest city in the world (bigger than Rome and Cairo) during the Middle Ages when it was built!
Sarki Abdullah Burja of Kano (ruled 1438-1452 AD), the 18th ruler of Ancient Kano, created the first Golden Age in Northern Nigeria and ushered in a period of great prosperity. During his reign, Hausa became the biggest indigenous language spoken in Africa after Swahili. He is on the list of 50
Greatest Africans in Robin Walker’s wonderful book, “When We Ruled”.
The Jos Plateau Indigobird, a small reddish-brown bird, is found nowhere else on the planet but Plateau state, Nigeria.
The Anambra waxbill, a small bird of many beautiful colours, is found only in Southern Nigeria and nowhere else on earth.
The Niger Delta (which is the second largest delta on the planet), has the highest concentration of monotypic fish families in the world, and is
also home to sixty percent of Nigeria’s mangrove forests. You should know too that Nigeria’s mangrove forests are the largest in Africa and third largest on earth.
According to the World Resources Institute, Nigeria is home to 4,715 different types of plant species, and over 550 species of breeding birds and mammals, making it one of the most ecologically vibrant places of the planet.
Ile-Ife, in present day Osun State, was paved as early as 1000AD, with decorations that originated from Ancient America suggesting there might have been contact between the Yorubas and the Ancient Americans half a millenium before Columbus ‘discovered’ America.
contributed by Samuel Okopi