By Rianat Wahab
“Never postpone an action to make a change. You might just be keeping a life endangered.”- Afeez Olalekan
Afeez is an experienced educator with over ten years of experience. He is a visionary leader, with a mission to help teenagers and youth harness their potentials for more productivity at an early stage of life, through access to 21st century and quality education. Afeez has served as the state coordinator of Young African Leaders Initiative, Ogun State, 2019/2020. He is a TeachSDGs Ambassador, Global Youth Ambassador, Theirworld, and World Literacy Foundation. He is the founder of LACED Africa, an initiative that drives peace through literacy development for African children.
Read his interview with Rianat
HOW ARE YOU LOCALIZING THE SDGS IN NIGERIA?
Being an advocate for the SDGs for the past 3 years, I’ve always aligned my impact projects and volunteerism with SDG4 (Quality Education). I served as the State coordinator for YALI Network Ogun 2019/2020. I’ve been a youth educator with Kayode Alabi Leadership and Career Initiative for 3 years, where I’ve trained over 1000 kids and teenagers on Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Character Training, SDGs, and Global Citizenship. In 2019, I worked with Library Aid Africa to empower young girls and women with digital literacy skills through WorldReader, and International Organization that promotes literacy. In 2020, I was a volunteer for the CLECT Project, for the kids at the correctional homes.
To continue with the literacy development mission in Africa, I started my organization, LACED Africa (Literacy for Africa Child Education and Development) in September 2020. Through this, I mobilized 90 global volunteers for a 10 days Child Literacy Campaign. We reached over 100 000 citizens through social media. We also got featured a WLF and Theirworld blogs. I organized the 4 weekends read hotspots to empower children in rural communities with literacy skills and global citizenship. I partnered with Dainty Zawak Initiative in Osun state to organize a literacy drive project. And in my organization, we are working on establishing a community library in Olalouwa community, Ota and some identified rural communities in Lagos state.
PLEASE TELL US MORE THE MAIN PROJECT YOU ARE WORKING ON
Establishing community libraries in rural areas to encourage kids to come together and learn beyond the four walls of the classroom.
PLEASE SHARE SOME OF THE IMPACT STORIES.
Between October 31st and November 15, LACED Africa organized 4 Weekends Read Hotspots for kids in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. The project was focused on promoting the culture of reading and peacemaking within the community. This project was also in partnership with Kayode Alabi Leadership and Career initiative.
The project had 30 beneficiaries and 10 volunteers who supported to make it a success. The kids were also able to learn about, Global citizenship, entrepreneurship literacy, and Sustainable Development Goals. The community now has a library space, and we’ve been calling for more books to help equip it.
HOW IS THE PROJECT ENSURING THAT NIGERIA ACHIEVES THE SDGS BY 2030?
LACED Africa is working with other literacy development focused to help children in rural communities improve their literacy skills. This is also aimed at leaving no one behind. We are working to ensure that every child could access quality education by 2030.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OR CONSTRAINTS AFFECTING THE SUCCESS OF THIS PROJECT AND WHAT ARE THE SUPPORT YOU NEED?
The major challenge is finding to provide required learning resources to equip the libraries. And this could be more achievable through effective partnership and sponsorship.
YOUR ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE.
Never postpone a change action. You might just be keeping a life endangered.
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To connect with Afeez, you can find him on Instagram or Twitter
