Lightup Foundation

WHY?

Scientists says: In 12-years, climate-change effects could become 'irreversible' without adequate action.

https://abcnews.go.com/Interna...

WMO Global climate-report indicates 1.2-degree-celsius above pre-industrial level in 2020, close to 1.5-degree-celsius limit. Danger alert-see report:  

https://public.wmo.int/en/medi...

Bag Of Hope (BOH)-my inspiration is the largest canvas bag in the world. Guinness-World-Records (bigger than 3-storey-building) The BOH will be used as a global tool to Promote a greener- environment.

HOW?

1. Collaborate with Young-People: I will be setting up a Global initiative tagged: BOHwiki a digital encyclopedia like the Wikipedia but more user-friendly where young-people will be encouraged to constantly document their efforts in promoting a greener-environment.

2. Advocate -  The UN-Arts-Ambassador Ibiyinka Alao has accepted to collaborate with Lightup on this project. Our plan is to display the BOH in strategic spaces, USA, UK, UN-Headquarters etc, to advocate for the richer-governments to support the education of the children from the world’s poorest-states in accordance to Articles 28 & 29 of the UNCRC to achieve the climate change objectives.

3. Awareness: I and the UN-Ambassador will have a BOH-tour to 20-countries (70% African-countries due to need) to create Environmental protection awareness among young-people’s rural-settings, schools etc. 

Our-Story

Becoming the Student Union President of a University with 25,000+students, in a place where women didn’t become Presidents!  I led during a time of significant troubles which were mostly problems which existed prior to my becoming a student at the University. These troubles had claimed many lives and caused significant interruption to the academic calendar. My resilience, and can-do attitude emerged from my adverse childhood experiences, again this was instrumental to the successful resolution of the problems I inherited at the University. Hence after my tenure, I felt I had so much to offer young-people so I went on to launch Organisation-for-Youths-and-Women-Affairs (OYWA). 

Due to the remarkable impact of my works, in 2004, the US-government invited me to represent Nigeria at an International-conference/Leadership-training This exposure changed my orientation and OYWA  was changed to Lightup-Foundation after I returned. 

Please Click:  http://www.lightupfoundation.o...

Vision:

Empower and support young people and the disadvantaged with necessary tools required to achieve their goals in life. 

Mission:

Lightup will serve by promoting selflessness and will connect the young people and the disadvantaged with life changing opportunities.  

Future Goals

1. Improve Educational Achievement.

2. Develop positive values and character.

3. To Equip young-people with leadership-skills

Problems: 

A. Lack of basic-education in poorer states (Breeds Environmental-illiterates). --- Mostly African states.

Foreign-aid cut: 

1.https://news.sky.com/story/ten...

2.https://news.sky.com/story/for...

...53% of children in low and middle-income countries cannot read/understand... Leaving SDG target-4 in jeopardy. https://www.worldbank.org/en/t...

260million, not in school... https://www.worldbank.org/en/t...

B. Lack of adequate motivation for young-people to champion the Environmental-cause. 

C. Lack of adequate Environmental-Awareness in Africa (rural-areas).

-Survey: 4-in-10 Africans have not heard about ‘climate-change’ yet. 

https://afrobarometer.org/publ...

- Page1232-Inadequacy of local-knowledge. 

https://www.ipcc.ch/site/asset...

PEOPLE AFFECTED:

Many African-states and  of course most children generally need motivation to get more involved globally.

SOLUTION?

A. Advocate (BOH-display) for richer-government to support basic-education in poorer-countries

B. BOHwiki: Providing global-platform for young-people to continuously showcase their positive-Climate-actions. (To motivate young-people globally).

C. BOH-tour to 20-countries to create Environmental-Awareness among young-people.

Describe Lightup-Foundation:

Lightup is associated with UNDGC and holds a Consultative status with UNECOSOC

For 21years with small-funds,creative-leadership and committed-volunteers we have achieved exceedingly more. 

We have successfully executed hundreds of projects internationally. 

Lightup-Project Examples:

1. Free school.

2. Prison work-Rehabilitation of Young-offenders - 2500 inmates.

3. Foodbank Project- Covid-19.

4. Mentoring/Motivational sessions/Counseling: UK, Nigeria-11,000.

https://www.facebook.com/Light...

5. Youth-Heritage-Project: Over 10,000 beneficiaries.

6. Volunteering-Schemes.

7. Lightup-BOH  12,000 beneficiaries

8. Skill-Acquisition programmes.

What makes our work innovative?

Collaboration with Young-people: BOHwiki is a very innovative concept, it provides a global platform for all children ages 4 - 17 years and all Youths from ages 18-25 years to record their activities to promote a Greener Environment. This could range from the planting of a tree to the coordination of a recycling club within their various communities. 

Young people can take pictures of the tree they plant, their advocacy work on encouraging the use of re-usable materials, their garden projects etc and display it on their page for the world to see. They can continue to return to their page to add their most recent activities. 

Annually, outstanding contributions will be celebrated and awarded BOHwiki-Gold-Partner.

Advocacy: BOH will be on display (BOH is taller than a 3-storey building). BOH is truly inspirational to promote such an essential-topic as Green-Environment. 

Awareness: Myself and the UN Arts Ambassador will also embark on a BOH tour to 20-countries to create Environmental-Awareness among children and young-people.  

What New Approach/Uniqueness of our work ?

The BOH and BOHwiki is our new-approach. This is unique because it is the first wiki that will showcase/celebrate children and young-people’s positive climate-action globally.   

How and why Lightup is having an impact on humanity

We:

- Don’t stop asking questions.

- Act-fast 

- Pay attention to every detail   

- Try to work with the right people on every project and 

- Make beneficiaries satisfaction our priority always. 

Description of the steps we take to achieve our planned impact

For the past 21-years we do: 

- Prepare  a detailed project-plan always.

- Continuous analysis of every project to monitor change and respond to it. 

- Actively engage with project beneficiaries from the point of project-conception to project-conclusion.

- Provide opportunities for others to contribute via suggestion box, call for action etc.  

- Learn from experience.

- Quality & independent project monitoring and feedback.

-Frequent project-planning meetings.  

- Seek the necessary collaborations for our projects. Example: For this proposal, the UN Arts Ambassador has now decided to collaborate with us. We have also commenced discussions with the UN on the BOH tour and display at the UN-Headquarters during world leaders' meetings, we have received positive response so far. We are currently still seeking more collaborations. 

The above steps has brought about useful revelations and better understanding of our project. Making challenges easily predictable and resolvable.