Rachael Onyemairo: I’m here to do the unthinkable and change narratives in my generation

Rachael Onyemairo believes that if a child is not trained to be a problem solver, they’ll grow up to become the problem themselves. In 2021, she founded The IDEA Moment (TIM) with Rachael, a highly transforming Academy for kids and teenagers. At TIM, she works with a team of very passionate individuals and together, they directly involve children from various African countries in the discovery of their own potentials, equipping them with diverse skills, knowledge and matchless exposures they need to solve problems innovatively and in so doing, thrive anywhere they find themselves in today’s dynamic world.

In this interview with ESTHER IJEWERE, Onyemairo, who has touched lives and impacted many through her initiatives, shares her story.

Childhood Influence
My childhood prepared me for what I’m doing now. I came from a broken home. After my parents divorced, I lived with many families as a house help/nanny. Consequently, I went through various kinds of domestic and emotional abuses. However, after living with these families, I returned home. Unfortunately, I entered into a new kind of hardship and vulnerability.
 
Seeing how hard life was, I vowed that I would lead a life that folks would see and be encouraged and that my existence would provide encouragement and hope for other suffering children in society. I didn’t quite understand how all of that was going to happen, but from the day I took that decision, I tagged myself an ‘Embodiment of Encouragement.’
 
Meanwhile, even before my parents divorced, my siblings and I performed very well in school. Unfortunately, no other aspects of our lives were developed nor equipped. Yet, my parents believed that they raised champions. They didn’t know that we followed other kids to indulge in all kinds of mischief. In fact, this was the case with many families in our community then.

Consequently, some children became addicted to porn, alcoholism, drugs and other forms of waywardness, to the extent that some parents lost complete control of their kids. So, all these experiences growing up piled up as a burden in my heart towards African children.

Inspiration Behind The IDEA Moment With Rachael Academy And INNOVATORS iSPACE
 
In addition to my childhood experiences, coordinating children in some churches since 2013 till date, and having served as a classroom teacher at some point in my life, I observed that neither the family, church nor the traditional school system is intentionally developing and equipping children with adequate skills they need to thrive in today’s dynamic society.

I also observed that the reason many children fall for drug addiction, porn, alcoholism and other forms of waywardness is because a lot of attention is paid to their brain, leaving their mind unattended to.
 
I also saw that many of these children are merely enrolled in school to obtain certificates and get jobs in the future, not necessarily to learn how to solve problems in society. It was obvious that nobody really understood that if a child is not trained to be a problem solver, they’ll grow up to become the problem themselves.

Therefore, in my bid to change this ugly narrative, I founded The IDEA Moment with Rachael Academy and through it, my team and I have been reaching out to children and training them through their parents.

Interestingly, between January 2021 and September 2022, we’ve been able to train as well as rehabilitate over 43 children (kids and teenagers), equipping them with diverse skills, knowledge and matchless exposures that they need to thrive in today’s dynamic world. Today, some of them have become authors, repairers of different electrical appliances, spoken word artists, monogrammers in training, Amazon self-publishers and lots more.
 
What inspired me to found INNOVATOR iSPACE, was that I have intelligent and multi-talented siblings, yet my family wallowed in abject poverty, to the point that I dropped out of high school at some point, because of hardship. It was that excruciating. I would say that each of us was born with enviable talents, yet we suffered in poverty.

Even after we had graduated from college, things never changed. Meanwhile, each of my siblings was not only hardworking but very passionate, when it comes to making an impact.

What Motivated Me To Train And Help Over 3000 Youths To Chase Their Dreams And Goals
What motivates me is the rate of poverty in Africa. Like Ebenezer Osuji once said, an idle youth is a devil’s tool. It’s therefore obvious that the incapacitation and idleness orchestrated by poverty is the major reason politicians cheaply use African youths as destructive tools. I believe that to end poverty in Africa, jobs need to be created for Africans and no one will create these jobs better than Africans themselves.

Since Africa as a continent is rich in problems, we need to approach this job creation as an opportunity to solve problems. But, I quite understand that problem-solving can only be effective if the problem solvers themselves are trained to do so expertly. Seeing that a lot of African youths are talented but still need some level of training so that their talents can be honed and turned to skills, equally motivates me to rise and fill the gap.
 
These are what motivate my team and I to train the minds and empower the hands of Africans, so they can gainfully employ themselves and others through solving problems with skills and approaches that meet global standards.

Other Projects Pnd Activities
Apart from The IDEA Moment with Rachael Academy, I’m the Founder of Innovative Minds Vision Africa – a highly innovative online community, where I head a team of very passionate individuals who train the minds and empower the hands of young people to be able to achieve similar goal of being able to gainfully employ themselves and others through solving problems with skills and approaches that meet global standards.
 
Here, I initiate and supervise collaborations with industry experts, as well as other entities to help the community members discover their potential and develop what they’ve discovered through STEM, Digital Marketing, Programming and acquisition of various Entrepreneurial skills, what they’ve discovered about themselves.
 
I’m also an internationally published author, a wife, as well as a mum. Other activities you could catch me passionately engage in include public speaking, reading, creative writing, book editing and several volunteer roles. As hobbies, I enjoy strolling, listening to God’s word, cool music as well as hanging out with my family.

Three Women Who Inspire You And Why
Grace Ihejiamaizu greatly inspires me. She’s a Nigerian Social Entrepreneur, Educator and Mandela Washington Fellow working to promote quality education and empower the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs. Grace is the Founder of iKapture Networks, a center for youth development that provides afterschool education and services to students and out-of-school youths in Nigeria, using creative learning methods and ICT and has trained over 3000 young people. She’s the woman that founded OpportunityDesk.org, which is the largest online platform that shares relevant opportunities for youth across the world.
 
Another woman that deeply inspires me is Rabi Egunjobi, Founder & CEO of iCore Naturals Company, Texas USA. iCore Naturals is a hair products company, which combines science, sophistication and elements of the earth to give the hair what it needs most: strength, moisture and growth.

Rabi is a Health Care Provider registered in the U. S. She’s the brain behind Rcore Home Health Care, a health provider established in Sugar Land, Texas specialising in Home Health. Rabi combines godliness, successful marriage and earthly relevance in a manner I admire so much. Looking at her inspires me to keep following God uncompromisingly while living out my dreams fully.

Next is Esther Ijewere. Esther is a Nigerian advocate, author, women and girl child’s rights activist and a columnist with The Guardian. She is a key member of Walk Against Rape, an advocacy initiative created to assist rape victims and seek justice. She’s the brain behind Rubies Ink Initiative for Women and Children. I’m inspired by the amount of resources she expends on philanthropy, especially in building women’s lives and careers.

I particularly admire how she educates, informs, inspires and motivates Nigerian and African women in general to be the best they can be and contribute positively towards nation-building. Above all, I love the way she professionally beams light on women’s works, giving them global visibility through her weekly column in The Guardian newspaper and her Women of Rubies platform. 

Looking at Esther, I deeply understand what Amy Leigh Mercree meant when he said that kindness could transform someone’s dark moment with a blaze of light, because that is exactly what her kindness does for African women. Esther’s life really inspires me to truly live for others.

What We Can Do Better As a Society To Educate The Youths On The Importance Of Learning Income Generating Skills
Families should start reorienting their youths that the main essence of schooling is not job security, but knowledge acquisition. Therefore, almost the amount of resources expended in making these young people persevere in Nigeria’s hectic educational system, should equally be expanded right now in making them to persevere in first, discovering themselves and then acquisition of skills that align with what they’ve discovered about themselves.

We, as a society, should also give due attention to these youths’ behaviours and character building not just on money-generating skills, because character is the only currency that can sustain them where skills are going to take them to.

One Thing I Wish To Change In The Advocacy and Development Sector 
It’s the way our society recognises and rewards riches over resourcefulness. I will reorient young people to build themselves into persons of value and then begin to offer value in exchange for money.
 
Looking at the way a lot of young people entangle themselves in ‘Yahoo quick money’ and other internet frauds and how their lives and future are cut short in these menaces, you’ll agree with me that this particular awareness is timely. Until young people accept the ‘no value, no money’ philosophy, they’ll keep mortgaging their future for today’s vanity.

Similarly, I’ll advocate against ‘result over diligence.’ I’ll advocate that the family, we need to start recognising and rewarding children for the amount of effort they put in while trying to achieve any kind of success and not just for achieving said success.

Being a Woman Of Rubies
Women of Rubies are women of substance, women of value. They’re exceptional women inspiring hope and transformation in the world. Interestingly, I drip both value and substance. By rescuing some children who were in the verge of committing suicide, reconciling those who were trying to run away from home, rehabilitating some who already caught up in addictions and more, I’ve inspired hope and transformation in African children as well as their families. So, I’m a woman from Rubies.

Like Esther Ijewere and other women of Rubies do, I spread kindness everywhere I go and I hope to do more. As a woman of Rubies, I’m here to do the unthinkable and to change narratives in my generation and for the generations to come.

To A Young Person Who Is On The Verge Of Giving up
Well, I don’t know if any young person can be at the verge of giving up as much as I’ve been. For instance, I’ve considered suicide at some point in my life, because of too many frustrations I’ve faced. One reason I never did was… I remembered that committing suicide is committing murder, and I already know that no murderer can make it to God’s kingdom. One time like that, I seriously considered giving up all these big dreams and quietly settled for a life of ordinariness, like many of my mates.
 
But then, I thought of what would happen to millions of young people who’re coming behind, who would have drawn hope and reassurance from the story of how I pulled through myself. So, what I began doing was taking my eyes off the frustrations, while I keep thinking, writing and talking about the kind of future I desire to have. And, this has been super hope-sustaining for me.

Therefore, I would tell such a young person to close their eyes to other forces of limitation all around them and create the very future they want to have, in their minds. Then, fix their gaze on that future they’ve created for themselves. Like the Bible says in Hebrews 12:2, seeing the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. They should allow themselves to be obsessed by what the future holds for them and then persevere.

Ever remember that failure is a meritorious feedback obtainable only by those who dare to make attempts. Interestingly, just a single open door can erase all the many failures of the past. Next time life wants you to give up, realise that you really should pull out your last drop of strength and push up.