PROJECT_INSPIRE SPEAKS WITH OYEBIMPE AROWOSEBE

With about 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria roaming the streets, children remain the most vulnerable group in Nigeria. While many just talk about the problem, a young Nigerian is rising to the challenge. Through her non-profit, ECIAS Foundation, Oyebimpe Arowosebe is helping to change the lives of many children in Nigeria. Project_Inspire speaks with her.




PROJECT_INSPIRE: Can we meet you?
Oyebimpe: My name is Oyebimpe Arowosebe. I am 28 years old. I am a native of Igede in Ekiti State. I am a community manager, child advocate, and a snail farmer who is passionate about the well-being and health of marginalized children in society.


PROJECT_INSPIRE: Tell us briefly about your childhood?
Oyebimpe: I grew up in a family of two, in an environment averse to laziness.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What’s your educational background?
  Oyebimpe: I attended St Joseph’s Catholic School and St Louis Girls Grammar School, Akure, Ondo State. I proceeded to Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, where I graduated with honors from Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What are your contributions towards making Nigeria a better place?
  Oyebimpe: I have always taken personal responsibility for national development within my space. While in University, I joined Junior Chamber International (JCI), an organisation whose main aim is to better the lives of people by solving community problems and training young individuals to be the best versions of themselves. In my service year, I carried out charity work in Lokoja, Kogi State, where I did three projects, the first of which was paying the tuition fees of 30 underprivileged students and purchase of academic materials and uniforms for them. Secondly, I organised a health workshop for the people of Kabawa community in Lokoja where they were sensitized to the scourges of malaria and diabetes. Participants had access to free consultations with doctors in which over 200 persons were beneficiaries. Lastly, I trained 150 girls in the importance of proper menstrual hygiene, gave them disposable sanitary pads, and trained them to make reusable sanitary pads. Following the vision I received in Lokoja, Kogi State, in 2017, I started Every Child Is A Star Foundation (ECIAS Foundation). ECIAS Foundation is a youth-led non-profit that focuses on the welfare and well-being of marginalized children in society by promoting their rights and improving their lives. ECIAS Foundation is registered with Corporate Affairs Commission. We envision a society where every child has access to food, clothing, shelter, quality education, and good health care. Its mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable children through charity, education, health care, and advocacy. In its three years of existence, ECIAS Foundation has touched the lives of its target population—street and school children—most of whom are in Kogi, Ekiti, Sokoto States, and the FCT, Abuja.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What have been your achievements?
Oyebimpe: The Foundation has been able to sponsor 30 children to school by paying their tuition fees and giving them school uniforms and academic materials. We have successfully trained over 700 girls to make reusable sanitary pads and in the importance of proper menstrual hygiene. Also, over 500 street children have benefitted from our end-of-the-year party tagged Every Child Deserves a Christmas.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What motivated you to do what you are doing?
  Oyebimpe: I am motivated to do what I do because it is one of the ways I get to make a contribution to society. I envisage a society where every child will achieve his or her full potential and have access to basic amenities. Humanitarian work is one of the things I do seamlessly.

  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Tell us more about what you are doing and how it will help our nation to realise its full potential?
Oyebimpe: Our organisation believes that every child is a star and that if children welfare and education are taken seriously, our nation's potential will be achieved because an educated child makes an educated nation.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What have been your challenges since you began the non-profit?
Oyebimpe: Limited resources. We have only been able to do as much as we are empowered to do.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Many young people have great ideas, but lack of funds is always a stumbling block. What’s your advice in this regard?
Oyebimpe: I will advise that they start from where they are with the little they have.


   PROJECT_INSPIRE: How have you been able to raise funds to implement your ideas?
Oyebimpe: We have been able to raise money through voluntary donations, social media, and from family, friends, and government officials.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: Could you share with us one or two experience(s) you have had in the course of doing this work that has really impacted on you?
Oyembimpe: An experience I would like to share is from an incident that happened in 2017 when we were trying to raise money and academic materials for students. My team and I took to the streets to talk to bookshop owners about our intention. A number of them gave us what they had to support us. However, we were baffled when a prominent bookseller who had three big shops told us that he had nothing to give while a small trader who had almost nothing gave us some stationery. From this incident, I have learnt that giving has nothing to do with the amount of wealth one has and that disappointment happens where one least expects.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What are your prospects in the next 5 or 10 years?
Oyebimpe: We look forward to touching more lives than we are doing now. We also hope to have a society where no child roams the streets while his or her contemporaries are in school because parents or guardians cannot afford to put him or her in school.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: What do you think is the major cause of unemployment among the youth today and how can we get over this?
Oyebimpe: I am of the view that neglect of the agricultural sector, corruption in high and low places characterized by embezzlement of public funds and bribery, rural-urban migration, rapid population growth, among other things, have contributed to the rate of unemployment among the youth in Nigeria. To get out of this, young persons must take responsibility for their survival, embrace creativity, and give their best to whatever their hands find to do.


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: How can you be reached on social media for those who want to be part of what you are doing?
Oyebimpe: Facebook: EVERY CHILD IS A STAR FOUNDATION Twitter: @eciasfoundation Instagram: eciasfoundation Gmail: eciasfoundation@gmail.com


  PROJECT_INSPIRE: The final word for the Nigerian youth.
  Oyebimpe: Our time is now. ACT!



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