It looks confusing to believe most times what the eyes sees but once you get to walk on the very same path that seems confusing and misunderstood – that’s when you appreciate what you have and see reasons to lift others out of such confusing state.

Within the past one year, ATLAS INITIATIVE has been identifying out of school children (4 – 17 years old) within several communities in Ikorodu such as Majidun-Ogolonto, Oju-Agemo, Adamo, Ota-Ona, Oko-Ito, among others. For the very first time, accurate statistics was gotten from the alarming number of children who have dropped out of school (or sometimes never started schooling) due to financial problem, loss of parent (s), ignorance and the underlined “lack of faith in the educational system” in an urban-rural area of Lagos state, Nigeria.

It gets better, as the willingness to learn is “burning” within these individuals we identified and the support from their community leaders is what has continued to motivate us in looking for funds and sponsorship to provide for their basic academics needs.

Daniel Okafor, 6 years old is one of the children we identified from majidun community. His story got our attention from his mother’s dedication of home schooling him and his sister after their father got struck with stroke – cutting off their major source of income. 

Being forced to stay home; Daniel and his family have to struggle from feeding, to house rent and buying medications for his father. He went from home play with other children to developing passion to the popular fishing within the community to support his mother – who occasionally hawks bread in the street.

That single attitude of learning and facing everyday challenge to be the very best, stands to be a magnet to our vision in uplifting others through learning and empowerment.