Home and Street kids Welfare Initiative

The Oasis Academy-TOSA is a special school for children in street situations in Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria. Children who are as result of the poverty of their parents and most of them the lack of parental care find themselves on the street for their survival. Nigeria alone has an average of 10.5 Million out of school children of which 84,247 of them reside in Kwara state, our state of operation. They probe great problems to the security of the state and the nation as a whole as they get entangled with the wrong set of people who lured them into rubbery, and gangs and their girls go through sexual abuse and forced or early marriage.

TOSA was established to give holistic education to these set of children in a conducive environment where they will be nurtured and groomed without being judged, criticized, or ridiculed as a result of their background but by teachers that see beyond their rags and are ready to bring their hidden greatness to the limelight.

In order to enroll the children at TOSA, a series of stakeholder meetings were carried out where the importance of the children's education was discussed and the part the communities leaders and the children's parents/guidance are to play was also discussed. The agreement/concept form was signed by the parents of the children who are mostly the mothers and with this, they agreed to partner with us for the consistency of their children in the school which they have been committed to it with great enthusiasm.

HOME AND STREET KIDS WELFARE INITIATIVE-HSKi THEORY OF CHANGE

ACTIVITIES

Step 1:

Recruitment and training of teachers and volunteers with early childhood guide and child protection policy

Step 2:

Provision of teaching aid and learning materials in English and Hausa language along with relevant textbooks.

Step 3:

Children engage in the entrance examinations for classroom placement.

Step 4:

Provision of writing materials/school kits to all pupils.

Step 5:

Daily classwork, monthly tests, and quarterly examination as feedback on the knowledge passed.

OUTPUTS

Step 1:

Street-connected children have access to quality and specialized education.

Step 2:

Pupils learn new things in class and gradually have their orientation changed about life.

Step 3:

Trained teachers and volunteers observe the kids, provide feedback, assess the academic progress of pupils, and model good behavior to the kids.  

OUTCOMES/SHORT TERMS

Step 1:

Pupils are eager to come to school.

Step 2:

Pupils are engaging in healthy competition in their classrooms.

Step 3:

Pupils' view about life is drastically changed as they now have a new aspiration for life.

Step 4:

Lost of taste and interest in street begging.

Step 5:

Decreased anti-social behavior.

Step 6:

Showing great improvement in reading and writing.

LONG TERM OUTCOMES

Step 1:

Giving at least primary education to 3 out of every 5 children in street situations in Nigeria

Step 2:

Giving at least primary education to 3 out of every 5 children in street situations in Nigeria.

Presently with The Oasis Academy-TOSA, we are at Level 2, which means we are gathering data to show some changes among those receiving our intervention. This we can measure by the school attendance rate of the children compared to when they were enrolled in regular schools and also by their perspectives on life and ability to dream big.

 Two sessions ago when our organization enrolled 40 children in street situations in regular schools around their residence, only  65% of them stayed through the first week in school, and at the end of the first term which is a quarter, only 38% of them was still regular in school despite follow-ups by our team but when asked we realized its beyond them as the school system is not tailored to motivate and inspire their kind of person which brought about the project: The Oasis Academy-TOSA which is a specialized school costume made for the children and beyond just teaching them the academics.

Their mind is continuously being worked on as dreams bigger than what they are used to is been painted to them via our family meeting sessions, movie days, and excursions among other things, and with these interventions, we are recording 95% attendance of the children showing up in school every school day.

In tracking our solution’s impact, we make use of class attendance to know which of the pupil is not in school and a classmate living close to his/her house is asked to check up on him after school. On more occasions, we put a call through to the parent/guidance of the pupil to really what kept the child out of school.

Giving at least primary education to 65% of street children in Nigeria and helping them have better aspirations about life.

One major research question we would like LEAP fellows to help us get an answer to is “How can we best empower the parents/guidance of the children in street situations in Kwara State” having an answer to this question will better quip us on our programs for the mothers/guidance of the children and also help put a stop to the circle of street begging among them and cause a lasting solution to the menace.

 It has been proven that when mothers are financially empowered at least 75% of their income will be spent on their household which means when a mother is financially empowered, an average of five children leave the streets as a result. Therefore gathering the data on at least 70% of the mothers begging with their children or staying at home and sending their children out to beg will greatly impact our work among the children in street situations.