Meet Abimbola Ajala, founder of Lend Hand for Africa. LAHAfrica is an organization that seeks to reach children in local communities across Africa starting with Nigeria to provide Educational support to them. This is her #COVIDPositiveStory;
As Lagos began to experience an increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases we knew that schools would be shut down and hunger would be a serious issue, also getting children informed would be a big deal, so we swung into action, first, we went to schools to educate them about the virus and how they can maintain good hygiene, the ignorance was overwhelming and we could not help but give food supplies along with hand sanitizers to them.
As the lockdown began we decided to support more families with food supplies and money to help them get by, especially single parents and the unemployed. The project seeks to feed and educate at the same time. So let’s put it this way, feed the body and inform the mind.
So far families can’t believe that we did all that for free, they feel loved. We have received countless messages everyday of how the food supplies are helping them survive daily. The children love that their families were remembered. We have always given these children food allowance, so yes we would continue after COVID-19, this just happened on a bigger spectrum.
We moved further to start a Facebook series titled “Dear teens” to educate teenagers about issues that bother them and how they can get advice and counselling. This lockdown means playing, and roaming around the street for some of them, and getting them engaged and properly informed becomes imperative to help them get enlightened and productive. So far the children are very excited about an opportunity to learn in a fun and relaxed way.
This project has taught me that collaboration is key, we can’t achieve so much in isolation. We did what we did because people supported us and made it possible. I have also learnt to be more involved in communities that way you hear the untold stories. I was so surprised that the children thought hand sanitizers was a drink and they felt the holiday was just something from the government not fully understanding the essence. I remember coming to twitter to advocate that sensitization of jingles be done in local languages.
I have come to realize that the grassroots are often neglected in and out of a crisis and that is very dangerous. They matter and should be treated as such.
I am inspired by my everyday work with LAHAfrica and my work with God to keep doing all the good I can. I want to see that children have the same opportunity at all levels and no child is truly left behind. Dear youths, please always remember you have a voice, use it. Everyone can make an impact.
