I can remember, my mom would trek long distances to fetch clean water for me and my eight siblings. This wasn't our reality alone, it was for a lot of people in the community. My community had a lot of impoverished families. We had no access to basic health services and quality education. Growing up here meant your life wouldn't amount to much. Most families accepted this fate, but not my dad.

My dad was a daily earner. His wages were meager but he worked so hard to ensure I attended the best schools known to him in Kaduna. The schools in our community were very poor. We didn't have good teachers. The learning facilities were inadequate, and most of the school's infrastructure was poor. 

He didn't have the privilege of advancing far in his education, but my dad labored to make sure that was not my case. Life was hard for him as a youth and he knew education would make his children's lives easier.

I attended Air Force primary school. Here I interacted with children whose parents were of higher social status. They also appeared better off than children from my community. My dad would always say to me “know who you are, and don't pretend to be who you are not”. I had always lived by those words and it was easy to accept my status amongst them. Although, this didn't stop me from making friends in such an unfamiliar environment. 

After many years, things didn't change in the community. I saw the children in school still under impoverished structures, it saddened me. A strong sense of compassion welled up inside me. I fit into society better than they could. My dad had made sure I had the kind of education that made this possible. I knew deep inside, I had to find a way to help.

In 2015, I was having lessons for my WAEC at a school in my community. Seeing the kids in the school sit down on the floor in a poor learning environment, I became annoyed. I started thinking “what can I do? How can I help these kids?”. I started trying to join community organizations. I wanted to contribute to changing the situation. It was a nice and tough experience at the same time. We were a group of young people trying to make change. We faced criticisms. Members of the community would say to us “how are you sure you can change anything?” “You don't have the money or the resources”. We always told  them that we had the ideas and the mindset to change the situation for these kids. What we tried to do was to get pens, to get books, to get shoes and see how we could support in the little way we could. We can make change by doing little things in a great way. Most of the kids now are grown. When they see us, they hold us in regard for what we have done for them before.

I did this with friends in my community who had the same mindset. We were 10 when we started, but at the end of the day only 2 of us saw it through. After the first successful outing, I felt different. I felt “today I have touched someone's life, made an impact". I felt like at my very young age, I was trying to do something bigger than myself. I knew I wanted to do more. So I started trying to build my network, trying to see who I should get in touch with, who I should speak to on this idea. This led me to interact with the community leader. He was very supportive, and I am very grateful for his support. I still remember the joy on the faces of the children during our first outreach. Their faces showed gratitude, joy and they crowned it with singing for us. It was so memorable.

My community remains dear to my heart. But I wanted to extend my impact to a particular set of children, the Almajiri children. The Almajiri child is vulnerable to different social vices in Northern Nigeria especially. So we thought of providing these children with a non-formal education. We thought of teaching them basic arithmetics, and English. We wanted to provide them with training which will equip them for the present and for their future. The project lasted for 3-4 years. We started the project in 2018 and were able to run it until 2022. Funding was one of our major challenges when we started. I tried contacting some community based organizations to get funding. I tried everything I could initially but was unable to get funding. Social media was very pivotal in helping us get funding. People who were seeing what we were doing, started to pay attention. The international community; people I didn't know supported me more than people I knew.

The Almajiri project was one with its challenges but I am proud of the progress we've made. We engaged both the mallams and the children themselves. These engagements allow us to understand their needs and concerns. Through these conversations, we were able to tailor our approach. We ensured our initiatives resonated with both the caregivers and the children.

In dealing with the Almajiri children, we realized not so many of them were from Kaduna. Some were from other Northern states. Some of the children stayed with us for six months, some seven months and some a whole year. We had initial difficulties; convincing the mallams, navigating through the complex Almajiri system. Despite this, we persevered.

 We started with 20 kids, and today we have over 200 children equipped. They now have essential life skills and knowledge. This brings me immense joy. The journey has been tough. But seeing the children can now read, write, and understand English is our consolation. The work doesn't end here, but I am grateful for the impact we've made so far.