Foundation donates to Lagos community

The Ajuka Foundation in partnership with Girl Gone International, group of women from different countries living outside where they hail from, have donated to girls between ages 13 and 25 in Aroyola community of Victoria Island, Lagos.

Speaking with The Guardian, founder of the foundation, Rosemary Ajuka, said her charity work focuses on empowering young girls, giving them tools to excel and be whoever they want to become. “We are giving out clothes, books, shoes, toys, sanitary items and spending time with them to help them with their education or skill acquisition.”

On what motivated the charity work, the former radio presenter said, “this is our maiden edition. I’m where I am because of the opportunity I was given. I don’t come from the richest home but I feel I was given an opportunity, and I have made it my life goal to give an opportunity to as many girls as possible, to expose them to the information they need to know.

Most of the girls get married immediately they finished secondary school, that was what spur me to do this.“Our big project is to go to communities like this and teach the senior secondary school girls who don’t have computers, to teach them the basic computer skills. Our goal is to get our partners to donate used laptops to us.

There is a world of opportunity and if you are not able to use computer, you may not be able to access it. So, many students failed the last JAMB just because they didn’t know how to operate computer, they got disfranchise, they don’t have a fighting chance before they even get into the exams hall, just because they don’t know how to use the equipment. So, our aim is to provide them the tools, information, exposure, the network they need to give them a fighting chance. I believe that education is the key out of poverty so, at Ajuka’s foundation, our core goal is to drive education and drive it through ICT because that is the age we are.We are happy to collaborate and do social projects, this is what we are founded on.

The representative of Girl Gone International in Nigeria, Sina Pape, said: “We exist in different cities in the world, and we are in communities to connect and give back to where we live. Everyone has stuff they can give back, things we don’t really need any more so, we decided to help out. It’s a shame some have but are not giving out.