Sponsor Schooling for 520 Out-of-School Children

Dear Donors,

For some children in Nigeria, the journey back to school is stopped before they ever reach the classroom.

Not because they do not want to learn. Not because their parents do not value education. Sometimes, the barrier is simply that a family cannot afford the fees, uniform, books, school bag and other materials their child needs to attend.

For a household already struggling to pay for food, rent and other daily needs, these education costs can become impossible. A parent may have several children and be forced to decide who can return to school and who must remain at home. A child may watch friends leave for school each morning while knowing there is no money for their own education.

The numbers show how widespread the problem has become. UNICEF has reported that 10.2 million Nigerian children of primary-school age and another 8.1 million of junior-secondary-school age are out of school. Poverty, insecurity and displacement continue to keep many children away from classrooms.

But an out-of-school child is more than a statistic.

It may be a girl who wants to become a nurse but has no uniform. It may be a boy who loves mathematics but cannot afford his books. It may be a displaced child whose education stopped when the family fled their community.

This is why Sponsor Schooling for 520 Out-of-School Children was created.

We plan to help 520 children from low-income and crisis-affected families return to school. Depending on each child's needs, support will cover school fees, uniforms, books, bags, stationery and learning materials. We will work with families and selected schools to enroll children across Primary 1–6, JSS 1–3 and SS 1–3.

Sometimes the distance between a child and a classroom is not very far. It may simply be the price of a uniform, a school fee that a parent cannot pay, or books that a family cannot afford.

Removing those barriers can put a child back behind a desk.

It can mean learning to read instead of spending another year outside school. It can mean continuing from JSS to senior secondary school rather than dropping out. Most importantly, it gives a child the opportunity to keep learning and imagining what life could become.

To everyone who supports this project, thank you. Your kindness can turn school fees into another year of education, books into lessons, and an empty classroom seat into a place where a child can learn.

Please share this project with friends, family and others who believe that a family's financial hardship should not end a child's education.

There are 520 children we hope to return to school. Behind every one of those numbers is a child waiting for a chance to learn.

Elijah
Project Leader