Children Library & Discovery Center

The problem of education inequality - bridging the gap between what the rich and poor learn through technology as well as give them access to educational resources they ordinarily cannot afford.

According to BBC, our community - Ajegunle is the unsafest slum to live in and the poverty rate is extremely high with over 90% of children living here being left behind and having no access to quality educational resources and technology. This affects the way we integrate into the larger society, our earning power and esteem as well. As a result, most young people in our community resort to drugs to deal with depression and the teen girls resort to prostitution just to make ends meet or because they do not have the skill set to get reasonable jobs. Our community is typical for low-income earners due to skill gaps from our fundamental years.  Ajegunle - our community is popular for its high rate of violence, crime, teenage prostitution, thuggery, robbery, high level of drug dealing and other social anomalies which we have traced to the deficits in the educational exposures of  children living here who in turn grow up to be young adults who are not prepared to properly integrate into the larger society.

Our community has a population of about 2 million people where 70% of this population comprises of youths who lack the skill set to be sustainable and children who are left behind in learning. 

The Children Library & Discovery Center is a place to bridge education inequality gap, ensure no child in Ajegunle is left behind and they have equal access to quality educational resources and technology that they ordinarily cannot afford in their low cost schools so they grow up to be competent young adults whose self esteem is heightened as a result and will not tow in the line of drugs, crime, violence, robbery, teenage prostitution and pregnancy among other social anomalies our community is typically know for.

How does this center work? It is a place where books, science, technology, art & creativity meet plus a reading clinic for children between 8 - 12 who cannot read simple words like ''her, the, man...etc". A place where every learning opportunity these children cannot afford to have in their low cost schools can be made available to them. Through technology, there is no limit to what they can learn and create and technology is at the centre of our function.

As at last two weeks, we have about 850 registered children library users and 90% of them learnt how to use a mouse in our small library while 100% of them used the VR goggle for the first time exploring science. 100% of them are learning how to use SCRATCH for the first time and this library is meant for under 12's only.

The same statistics goes for all they have learnt through arts - it's their first time to get hands-on on there learnings.

Now, it will be impossible to have most of the facilities we have (and want to have) in their individual low cost schools, but with centres like this, which is free, they can, at least once in a term or at worst, in their lifetime, have access to quality learning environment, educational resources and technology. 

Apart from the learnings from here, the environment where most of us live is very dingy - you can have about 35 - 45 people living in crammed building sharing one or two toilet facility - it is more of chaos in these homes and then their poor furnished schools leave them with only tattered image of life, but with spaces like ours, it gives them a different atmosphere that can help clear their minds when they come to read and even inspire them to be lifelong learners.

We are working to improve the learning opportuity of unders 12's in low-income communities, starting with Ajegunle in Lagos, Nigeria then to more African countries. 

Over 70% of children living in this community are poor; their parents earn between 10$ - 40$ per month.

If we neglect these children, most of them grow up hopeless and resort to drugs and other social vices. This is why, today, in every nook and cranny of Ajegunle, you will find young adults smoking weed and the number of motels in this community in on an alarming rise with more young girls as the customers.

All of these are rooted in the incapablity of these ones to apply themselves and if you get closer, you will realize they went to school but poor quality education was given to them. Most of them have difficulty expressing themselves in simple English and this affects their esteem and the type of jobs they settle for. 

On a larger scale, there is a stereotyping we suffer from if you mention that you live or were born in Ajegunle. As a matter of fact, it was the stereotyping (especially) that led us to start solving our problems so as to change the narrative of our already labelled community. We want a better life for the children behind us. We do not want them to go through the same struggles we went through growing up, finding jobs and integrating into the larger society. As a matter of fact, the violence in the community has sky-rocketed and we are all suffering for it. 

We do not want the next generation of young adults to tow in the line of crime, drugs, prostitution, low-end jobs, violence, thuggery etc that our community is typically known for.

Ajegunle is a community where we were all born, grew up and still live in. So we know our problem like the back of our hands. 

As a matter of fact, it is rise in these problems that made us start our NGO - Transforming Ajegunle Project - where we are exploring the power of education and accountability in local governance to transform our community.

We are hoping that we can have a community transformation model from our projects which we can replicate in many other low income communities with similar problems like ours. 

We are hoping to be on more platforms, get empowered with skills and resources to do more and be more seen so our works are scaled and replicated, thereby transforming more lives and communities.

First, I strongly feel my idea is innovative and should be quickly adopted in many other communities and villages so more children are given the opportunity to learn what they cannot afford in a safe space. 

As such, we want more people to be aware of what we do and come on board to even let us know how well this can be scaled and replicated in many more communities.

Plus, we the space is already crammed and we have these children come in bathces. We even send some home in spite of the distance. We just hope we can have a bigger space to accommodate more of these children as well as gain technical knowledge and networks on how to scale. 

It is the first of its kind where Science, Art , Technology, Books and a reading clinic meet for children of the poor to learn for free and we are hoping this will bridge education inequality gap both online learning and real-time learning.

We are also going to be opening the ''market'' for more people to leave a legacy through our ''Legacy Library Project'' where families or groups can partner with us to establish and run their ''legacy'' library ( a library in their name) as we move to establish multiple mini hybrid-libraries (digital and books) in these communities. 

They say Africans do not read and that is why we are poor, we are very convinced that with many more of these mini libraries in our community, in no distant future, the negative narratives and social anomalies we are known for will be a thing of the past. We will have highly resourceful people who will further fix their community and nation. 

We want to build a bigger Children Library and Discovery Center now that we have tried the pilot project and we are having serious crowd issue. So this year, we are hoping to start the building through fund raising and establishment of a social enterprise to help us sustain the library.

In 5 years time, we should have built at least one of this same type of bigger structure and have multiple small e-libraries within every 15 minutes walk in these underserved communities. That means, each community has a big library with quality educational facilities and then multiple mini-libraries (digilibraries) within every 15 minutes walk. 

Through our ''Family Legacy Library Project'' - we will open up the door for more people to partner with us to set up these multiple small libraries in their family names while each community has a bigger one where all the major facilities will be installed.

Increase in ICT skills of these children

Environmental awareness and actions because we use this same place to teach them to be environmetnall responsible 

When we have libraries like this, i am fully persuaded that it will prove that education can transform communities and reduce poverty rate. If these children are well equipped with knowledge, skills and attitude, they will be prepared for life and make life meaningul for thmeselves

We use computers softwares at the moment to explore the very basics of ICT for the children. Then we add Coding, Graphic Design, Video Editing. But as part of the content for the proposed new library, we are working on bringing in robotics, Virtual Reality and AI to help upgrade their ICT skills. At the moment, these kids are left behind and do not even know how to turn off and turn on a computer. That's our starting point.

We do not discriminate.

At the moment, it's personally funded with donations from board members  and other well meaning Nigerians but we have resolved to start a Printing company - DoGood Print where people print at a discounted fee just so we can have volume and all the profit is used to sustain and establish more children libraries,

We are setting up the DoGood Printing Company and we will be using resources here to gain more knowledge on how to effectively run this.

We are just about to start this and it looks very promising