Submitted
2020 Elevate Prize

Bookers International Schools

Team Leader
Tunde Adeyemi
About You and Your Work
Your bio:

I grew up in the streets. I was homeless. An orphan. I never went to school and had to survive daily. Eating once a day was a luxury, and getting a roofed space to sleep at night was like winning the lottery. I witnessed violence, death and so much injustice and became used to it at a very young age.

Eventually, a street teacher called Mr. Bookers who dedicated his life to helping homeless children learn how to read and write taught me how to read. That changed my entire life and I had managed to escaped the streets. 

I had later attended a university part-time, I had gone to a polytechnic, I had earned diplomas in professional institutions, and I had discovered how education, skills and information can change the life of a once homeless young man to someone who is now a problem solver and change maker.

Project name:
Bookers International Schools
One-line project summary:
We provide quality education and vocational with sensitization programs for young people within our community
Present your project.

We offer education, agritech and sustainability training to low-income, out-of-school-children, and displaced youths in Nigeria. With a reach of over 5,000 youths yearly, full scholarships for formal education are offered to 50% selection of students from poor background, while those participating in the non-schooling program receive free training on managing farms, entrepreneurship, keeping livestock and building and maintaining waste conversion devices. Profit generated from these activities benefit both the school and the students.

We build partnership with our community to enrich lives through 7 programs; those benefiting include internally displaced and out-of-school children but specifically young women who are mostly discriminated against. The outcomes of our project include the following: literacy programs for unlettered children, skills provision, entrepreneurship education, and student managed farming and environmental projects; counselling for HIV and depressed young women, and provision of information regarding grants and funding for our young trained young entrepreneurs.

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What specific problem are you solving?

There is systemic discrimination in my country: quality education and empowerment programs are mainly for the elite, and this has created a cycle of challenges.

With 13.2 million out of school children and over 40 million unemployed young people which could grow up to 50 million by December 2020 in the era of Covid-19, Nigeria is a ticking time bomb.

There is growing insecurity, violence, hunger and multidimensional poverty—women and children remain the greatest victims.

The only hope for the youth is fleeing the country and there are thousands migrating yearly. The poorer-population who are the most desperate will take the "cheap route" like I did. The cheap route cuts through the Sahara Desert and Northern Africa countries. The final lap of this dangerous journey is finally facing the Mediterranean Sea to cross into Europe on inflatable boats. I unfortunately witnessed how hundreds of young African perished in their quest for economic Eldorado, and I have decided to return home--I wanted to do something.

In 2014, I co-founded Bookers International Schools to help young people, especially young women. I have since worked and tried to daily solve the: “Educational, mass migration, sensitization programs, skills and environmental challenges” in my community.

What is your project?

Bookers is a renowned provider of education to unprivileged and low income youths. We build partnership with our community to enrich lives through formal, vocational and entrepreneurship education. The outcomes include: skills provision, entrepreneurship education, counselling for HIV and depressed young women and provision of information regarding grants and funding.

We have different programs through which we empower young people which include the following:

1. 50:50 Educational Model: which means our entire formal education population are divided in 2 halves. Half pay, while the other are carefully selected young people from poor background.

2. ByFE: Bookers Youth Farm Enterprise, our agricultural program that provides intensive farming and livestock rearing skills to its participants.

3. BEEP: Bookers Eco-Education Program which collaborate with young people to address how youths can protect their environments and manage farm and educational waste.

4. And other programs to empower youths.

Bookers International School empowers unprivileged young people of different background, sex, cultural and language. Through our work on literacy to out-of-school-children, and a vocational high-school education which provide 22 skills, we are able to affect economic recovery, create young entrepreneurs, avert current and future vulnerabilities, and empower young women or marginalized strands of the communities.


Who does your project serve, and in what ways is the project impacting their lives?

Bookers’ seeks to solve the marginalization of poor, displaced and disabled young population with books, education, vocational and sensitization programs. We facilities access to free literacy programs, skills, and different empowering projects for 5,000 young people and yearly.

Our programs uncover that potential that build confidence and personal strength of our participants to overcome economical, emotional and deep rooted challenges within. We run different entrepreneurship programs which include a school farm, environmental education and projects and school backed small businesses and let our students, especially the young women run and train themselves, thereby creating tools for scalability and a means of developing young entrepreneurs, livelihood opportunities and community leadership.

Our solution has greatly reduced poverty, hunger, illiteracy and crime. In 2018, we started the HFI: Home Farm Initiative and encouraged over 3,000 youths to start a farm from the corner of their home. Today, over 500 of these farm projects have a combined value of over $100,000. The proud owners were youths who formerly depended on less than $1 daily.

With deep understanding of our communities, we understand the greatest challenges its young population faces and the required solution, and this is the form of education, sensitization and empowerment programs.

Which dimension of The Elevate Prize does your project most closely address?
  • Elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind
Explain how your project relates to The Elevate Prize and your selected dimension.

For someone who once lived on the street for nearly a decade, I have clear knowledge of the daily challenges of unprivileged young Nigerians, and especially young women who daily battle hunger, illiteracy, poverty, and violence. The root cause of these challenges is simply linked majorly to illiteracy, mentoring, awareness, and lack of skills.

My team and I believe therefore put “laddership”—which is helping young people to climb out these challenges before profit; knowing well we are elevating them to become part of the solutions and not just to remain as problems within their communities.

How did you come up with your project?

I had worked in different factories and a notable one was NICAPACO: Nigeria Cartons and Packing Company, a company owned by the Chinese. 

As I was promoted, I learned a lot about how the Chinese approached and solve problems. I discovered it was entirely different from the way Africans operated. The Chinese are very adaptable, modest, and extremely curious. A brief chat with some Chinese engineers changed my attitude. After I enrolled into part-time educational programs, I discovered the Nigerian learning education model is entirely different, and with less capacity building initiatives.

No wonder the Vanguard Newspaper in a 2018 front-page declared that the “Nigerian graduates are unemployable.” 

Besides, only 1 out of 4 high-school students ever even make it to the universities (qz.com), which means most Nigerian graduates and their high school counterparts face similar challenges: which is simply: “lack of problem skills.”

My co-founders and I there decided to solve these problems and we decide we will establish a foundation educational organization that will operate on 5 key metrics associated with empowerment of our target population:

1. Health and mental well-being 
2. Education and leadership program 
3. Gender equality 
4. Economic empowerment 
5. Environmental Education and programs

Why are you passionate about your project?

My past pain-point remains my greatest passion--and it still remain the challenge I am working on. I lived in the streets for over 10 years. I watched a homeless friend health deteriorate until she died. We had to live with her corpse for two days since nobody came to claim it. In the street, there was so much injustice and no hope.

Sadly, there are 100 times more homeless and out-of-school children who lived in the streets today than back in 1998. 

My co-founders, team and I have similar experience--we fully understand the challenges faced by unprivileged youths. One of the co-founders of Bookers was a young woman who had survived rape as a child and later went to the university so she could help other young women. The current supervisor of our school farms battled poverty for over 2 decades, so we all share similar background and experiences.

Our greatest passion and strength is knowing we are helping change the lives of some young children just like little Ayomide Olaoluwa whose 1st position winning story was read by thousands on the Financial Times about how our program saved him from the streets and how he found healing in books.

Why are you well-positioned to deliver this project?

Long before I ever dreamed of owning a social enterprise, I had worked with a street teacher called Mr. Bookers. He was given that unique name due to his passion for books and teaching homeless children. He had a mini-street-school built with planks and cardboard where about 30 homeless children learned to read and write. I was one of his early students, and he is my role model even till date. I was often called his assistant.

Mr. Bookers was one of the three homeless people killed during retaliatory attacks caused by religious crisis raging in another part of the country. I automatically took the mantle and continued with his work. After the violence, I was determined to escape the street and so I had to work to earn a living and could only teach my fellow homeless mates during the weekends. I continued this work until 2007 even after I left the street.

I later continued the project in 2012 and called it "BCSI: Bookers Career and Skills Initiative. BCSI was created to tackle social challenges facing youths and skills gap. I formed a team and we worked by visiting public schools within Nigeria to educate youths about developing skills and what they needed to know about discovering their true passion. BCSI organized a lot of seminars and visited 6 states within Nigeria. It was functional till 2014 when it was renamed Bookers International Schools.

Provide an example of your ability to overcome adversity.

As a child, I noticed I was often sick. Growing up in the street complicated my health condition. I couldn't use the local health facilities since they are often overcrowded, and doctors don’t attend to a minor without their parent present. I lived through these pains, and would often tell myself I will be fine. By 24, I was going through major health challenges. I battled with high-blood pressure. My eyesight was getting blurring, I was often dizzy anytime I overworked, and discovered I might die very young. The government hospital cardiologist whom I later visited told me my condition was genetic and from extreme stress. He had urged me to relax. He had also recommended a private hospital for better treatment. The private hospital demanded for roughly $1,000 to treat me and I had fled the premise. 

Instead, I did extensive research, made radical changes, and today I am perfectly healthy. I have totally eliminated carbs from my dinner; I work-out daily, sleep 8 hours, and discovered the magic of self-healing. Despite one doctor predicting I won't live up to 30 due to my severe health challenges, I am already 35 and see myself living up to 100.

Describe a past experience that demonstrates your leadership ability.

In 2017, a great flood threatened my dream and submerged our largest school hostel. It took several years and almost 3 years of savings and donations to build the hostel, but I was lucky my house was nearby on a hilly location. The following week, we relocated the entire school operations to my house. It was as if nothing had happened, although we had to create some extra wooden classrooms, and I went from been a new home-owner to becoming a tenant again. I had stayed in my new home for just eight months and was already making plans to propose to my girlfriend before packing out.

The submerged structure was pulled down, and the place is now converted to a full-functioning training farm. I was just grateful that my house was nearby, and that it could serve as the school. I couldn't get married again since I had to stay with a friend until I had enough to rent an apartment.

By 2019, my former home was remodeled to a standard school building which can handle 5,000 young learners. I have long discovered engaging in something greater than you can be extremely painstaking and lonely.

How long have you been working on your project?
10 years
Where are you headquartered?
Ifo, Ogun, Nigeria
What type of organization is your project?
  • Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
If you selected Other, please explain here.

None. Bookers International School is not under any organizations.

More About Your Work
Your Business Model & Funding
The Prize
Solution Team:
Tunde Adeyemi
Tunde Adeyemi
Director