PROJECT_INSPIRE: Can we meet you?
Innocent: I am Odianosen Innocent Bizjames, 39 years of age and from Edo State, Nigeria.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: Tell us about your childhood?
Innocent: I had an interesting childhood. I was born and raised in Gombe State. My experiences as a child help shaped my adulthood and I am grateful to God for such a childhood.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: What is your educational background like?
Innocent: I attended Gombe High School,Gombe State and Ikenne Community College,Ikenne,Ogun State for my primary and secondary school education respectively. I was admitted into University of Benin to study chemical engineering which I did for a couple of years before deferring the admission to pursue the vision of setting up a Basketball Academy.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: What contribution are you giving to make Nigeria a better place.
Innocent: I have committed my time, energy, and resources to train kids and young adults, with more emphasis on the girl child through basketball, leadership and mentorship programs to aid in building their low self-esteem and confidence. I began training boys and girls as far back as 2009 when I saw the need to assist the female team of the University of Benin with their training as the school was set to host the Nigerian University Games (NUGA) in 2010/2011. At the end of the games, the team bagged the 4th position.
Moving on from there, I started Graduate2Greatness Basketball Academy™ (G2G), a social enterprise that uses basketball as a channel to sustain girls’ participation in sports in local communities while restoring their broken self-esteem through our human capacity development programs annually. At G2G, we’ve been working on supporting the confidence of girls for about 13 years, and working with the adults in their lives – parents, family members, guardian, educators, coaches, and mentors. G2G has the following key objectives:
• To invest in innovative techniques to retain the number of girls and women in sports
• Re-educate young girls that it is socially valid to participate and express themselves in sports
• Create opportunities for girls to learn new skills and grow beyond the “can’t do” stigma
• Alleviate poverty by increasing girls access to quality education through scholarships
• Take young girls off the streets and reduce the incidences of premarital sex and drug use.
50% of girls quit sports at puberty right when it could benefit them the most. More than half of young girls experience a drop in confidence during puberty, and many never recover. As a brand with an heritage of championing girls participation in sport globally, we want to stop the drop in confidence girls experience at puberty and empower them to be their best. This is our commitment at the Academy.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: What motivated you into doing what you are doing?
Innocent: My motivation stems from my personality. I love reaching out to others especially young people.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: Tell us more about what you are doing and the impact it is creating.
Innocent: Through our annual human capacity development programs (G2G Love Feast, G2G Children’s Day Leadership, #NoLimits SparkUp Girls Basketball Camp, SparkUp Girls Leadership Conference, G2G Ladies Mentorship Africa and G2G Gentlemen Mentorship Africa), over 500 youths have been groomed. We have provided openings for some of our girls to go on to live out their dreams of playing basketball in the highest level while getting quality education through scholarships in the USA and Europe. In 2014, I scouted a very promising young girl of about 6’4. I approached her, introduced myself, and asked her if she would love to play basketball with her height and she said yes. I obtained her parent’s consent and enrolled into our academy. Because of where she was coming from she had a very low self-esteem and was extremely reserved. To help her improve, I introduced her to books about positive attitude, self-confidence, teamwork and leadership being confident, self-motivation, leadership. She was also enrolled into a number of human capacity development trainings. By the end of 2015, she had gotten wide exposure from our tours and camps across different states in Nigeria, made new friends and became comfortable being herself. She became more expressive and felt less intimidated by others.
In June 2016, she became the Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the annual summer camp organized by Access2Success Foundation. In September 2017, she got a scholarship to Linden Hall High School, Pennsylvania, USA where she just graduated this year 2021 as the PA 2A Player of the Year, 2X All-State Recipient, 3X District Champion and now committed to continue her college with Northwestern University, USA. In no distant time from now, we will see this very timid and low self-esteemed girl from 2014 playing at the highest level of women’s basketball in the world, the WNBA. She is now a mentor & role model to so many girls looking up to be & achieve the level she has attained.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: What has been your challenges since you began your non-profit organization?
Innocent: Accessing a training facility for the academy. This has been a huge tussle through the years and we hope to find a lasting solution. Another challenge has been getting the consent of parents/guardians to train their wards hasn’t been easy and of course financial constraint but the good news is that in the midst of these challenges, we are making progress.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: Could you share with us one or two experience(s) you have had in the course of your work at G2G that has impacted on you?
Innocent: An experience that has really impacted me in this journey was when I got our global mentors, Mrs Liza Pavlakos and Mrs Ibitola Ojoye-Adebayo from Melbourne, Australia and United Kingdom respectively as speakers for the maiden edition of the G2G Spark Up Girls Leadership Conference 1.0 that held on September 22, 2017. Another exciting thing that happened during that period was that Qatar Airways agreed to be the official flight sponsor for our speakers who were coming in from overseas.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: Many young people have great ideas but the finances are always a stumbling block, what will your advice be in this regard?
Innocent: Lack of finances has and will always be a stumbling block to a lot of young people with awesome ideas. Only a pretty small percentage from this category of people see their ideas to light by holding on & not giving up on these ideas. I am no different from this reality but I constantly do my best to keep my head above the waters by creating strategies that would generate income to run the academy projects. One of the ways in which we generate funds in-house as an academy is through registrations. To gain access into the academy, you have to pick up a registration form for a token and the funds generated are put back into the running of the academy’s human capacity development projects. My advice in this regards is for young people to start off those ideas with what they have no matter how little it is and then grow it deliberately. No one is going to give you finances to run your ideas until they see that you have made an effort to raise some finances on your own to bring these ideas to life. Develop your network and share your ideas with them.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: How has the reaction of young people been like when they see you doing what you do?
Innocent: The reaction from young people seeing me do what I do over the years has been unbelievable, some with mixed feelings and others just think what I am doing is crazy and a waste of my time. I recall being told that I should rather go apply for a job because basketball isn’t a recognized game in Nigeria and may as well not thrive. My response has always been to smile and allow the results from our programs speak for themselves. There is power in consistency and that’s all I needed to shut out every doubt.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: How have you been able to raise money for your projects?
Innocent: There are a number of ways I have used in raising money for our projects. Like I earlier mentioned, I utilize the sales of registration form. Other ways are support from parents of my students, sending support proposals to corporate businesses, support from family and friends and setting up fundraising events.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: What are your prospects for the next 5- 10?
Innocent: In the next 5-10 years, the G2G Global Sports University would have been established to assist sustain more girls in sports.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: Final words to the Nigerian youth.
Innocent: My final words to the Nigerian youth, be aware of your power and the role you have to play in nation-building. You are very energetic and enthusiastic. So regardless of the many challenges hovering all over you, see them as stepping stones to go after your goals and achieve them, not just for yourself, but for the overall development of Nigeria.
PROJECT_INSPIRE: Thank you for sharing your story. It is our prayer that our readers will be inspired to take action as they read in Jesus Name, Amen.
Innocent: Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Innocent and the Academy can be reached via:
Instagram:
@g2gbasketballacademy
@g2gladiesmentorshipafrica
@ibizjames
Facebook:
Graduate To Greatness Basketball University
Innocent Bizjames
Follow Busaosowo Foundation on:
www.instagram.com/busaosowofoundation
www.facebook.com/busaosowofoundation
bofinitiatives@gmail.com
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