Hi guys 🙋 I’m really excited about writing this post cos it’s about something very dear to my heart.
The SRU initiative, short for Sleeves Rolled Up, is an initiative born out of the need to stop the younger generation from making some of the mistakes the older generation made in ensuring that we become more sensitive to the conditions the less fortunate suffer from the society, the less fortunate suffer from some sense of neglect which encourages them to do things that hinder our development as a nation. They believe in the possibility of a knowledge based society where people put the interest of others before theirs.
In achieving this, they set out in October of this year, to Whanyinna Nursery and Primary School, Makoko to embark on the first phase of the project.
In partnership with Africa reeds, textbooks were made available by the SRU committee, to the students and every member interacted with them. An essay competition was also organized for the students in which 3 brilliant boys were picked as winners. Sounds like something you’d have loved to be part of, right? Me too! I couldn’t go because I had exams that period but you can read more about it on https://demiladeayo.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/to-be-thankful/
In a bid to further promote academic excellence and the reading culture among young children, the initiative organised a day to further educate and interact with this winning kids. On the 24th of December the SRU team consisting of 6 people Toritse, Ebi, Deayo, Andrew, Wale and myself went to pick the winners from Makoko alongside their chaperon, Mr Afolabi.
Sorry guys, my own story is about to start 😂😂
I had heard so much about the winners and I was curious to meet Emmanuel, one of the boys who wanted to be a lawyer. Unfortunately, Emmanuel had travelled with his family for the Christmas holiday the previous day. However, I still got to meet Francis, who wants to be a teacher and Steven, who wants a medical doctor. The boys were given SRU sweatshirts to change into and for their keeps. Immediately Deayo and I started interacting with them, we found out that they had just seen their results from school. Steven came 1st, Emmanuel 2nd and Francis had come 3rd. I was so glad to see such smart boys and I was eager for them to experience something they had never done in their lives.
We headed to the National Museum, Onikan. When we got there, I was surprised as to how deserted the place was on a public holiday in contrast with city mall which is directly beside museum. I remember visiting the museum in my primary school days. It cost us 200 per adult and 100 per child to get into the museum and i wondered why more people weren’t around since it was so affordable. We had a tour guide who took all of us around the museum and carefully explained each detail of the museum to us.
The tour was divided into two parts : Nigeria, life and culture as well as Nigeria, government and past leaders. For the 1st part, we went through birth rites, fertility gods, rulers, festivals, lifestyle, among the various ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Some of the items that stood out for me were the royal chair of oba ereduwa of Benin (I had read something on him in a sociology at school), the actual ifa bead, masquerade regalia of the urhobo people, differences in hut arrangements among the 3 major tribes, one of sango’s axes and many more stuff I can’t remember at this moment. Would’ve recorded the whole process but cameras aren’t allowed into the museum (so sad ☹ ).
We had to move to another part of the museum for the second part of the tour. On our walk there, i asked Steven if he was enjoying himself even though I could tell from the bright smile on his face, he nodded “yes” in confirmation. I asked what he was going to tell his class mates when he got back to school and he said “i will tell them that all the things we use to watch on tv, i saw them real”. I couldn’t help but smile at this point. I knew the children were probably not going to remember most of what they had seen but they were also never going to forget this experience.
The children got to see all nigeria’s leaders right from the pre-colonial era till date. Toritse specifically pointed out to the them, the two pictures of Obasanjo and Buhari and explained that Obasanjo had ruled Nigeria twice and Buhari was ruling for the second time.
Deayo made them learn the names of the current president, his vice, the senate president and the speaker of the house. We all got to see the car in which the Muritala Mohammed was killed, the numerous bullet holes and shattered glasses. There were still blood stains (of course dried) on the ‘ceiling’ of the car. I was surprised to know that the car still runs and had been taken for a spin around the compound a week ago. We were also shown the original tires the car had come which were also destroyed by bullet holes. The children looked very fascinated and Mr Afolabi explained further to them who Muritala was.
When the tour was over, we gathered for pictures in front of the museum and took drinks we had bought before going in.
We were all tired but the day wasn’t over yet, we went to freedom park which is on the same road. I found out that Freedom park is the location of the old ikoyi prison. The gate fees were the same with that of the museum. I had been there sometime in August for the first time with some friends for a meeting. Everyone voted me as tour guide which was funny but it wasn’t so hard sha cos the park is pretty straight forward. We saw some places which were marked as old prison cells, some sculptures that showed some things we had actually just seen at the museum.
Mr Afolabi helped explain to the children as we walked around. We ended up at the food court where we ordered some food.
The food took forever to be ready but when it finally arrived, we were all glad. Much to our amazement, the boys took spoons and put them in one plate and were ready to eat from the same plate until they were made to understand they had separate plates of food, we all smiled and they smiled back. After eating, we were supposed to take more pictures but everyone was too tired. We got into the cars and headed back to Makoko. The kids weren’t in the car I was in so I couldn’t interact with them further. When they came down from Toritse’s car, they turned to us, with bright smiles on their faces as they waved good bye. The smiles on their faces were absolutely priceless.
I was and still am grateful to God for the opportunity to put a smile on their faces and encourage them to keep doing excellently in school. Stage two of the SRU x Makoko floating school project. Check! Can’t wait for stage 3, watch this space for more information.
Before I stop typing, permit me to quote a part of the SRU vision statement, “SRU is a vehicle for that culture shift, we are aware that it’s not great individuals that make for a great nation, it’s a great people. At the end of the day, as in the words of a great pop culture icon, we all need love”. I just want to encourage everyone to show love to the less privileged kids. It doesn’t have to be as elaborate as going to an orphanage, you could just do something fun for the kids in your neighborhood (SRU started with organising a film show for a couple of kids in my area). Spread the love! Make someone smile this season. Off to go and reflect on the year that has been. A bientôt!
Warm regards,
Besidone.
Hey there, I’m Besidone Eyesan. I’m 18 years old, a law student and an unapologetic God lover. I’ve been thinking and talking about starting a blog for years now but we all know that thing called procrastination that holds us back, yeah, I’ve been procrastinating a lot (for almost 4 years). I have also been trying to deal with thoughts of not being good enough or not being the kind of person people would want to read about. Anyways, recently I stumbled on a picture on instagram that said “you know those things you’ve always wanted to do, you should do them” so here’s me doing that. I’m also working on overcoming fear because “I have not been given the spirit of fear but of power, love and of a sound mind”. I mean you have to believe in your brand or no one else will. I was also confused as to what kind of blogger I want to be. I really like fashion and I want to be a designer eventually but I don’t want to be just a fashion blogger. I am a passionate Christian and when inspired, i like to write stuff i feel will impact others. Hence the confusion, fashion or faith or fashion and faith. But then, I realised how encompassing the word lifestyle is. It involves what you believe, what you do, what you wear, where you go, what you like and don’t like. I’m going to be a lifestyle blogger. I’m going to be sharing everything from my personal style choices to my beliefs, life lessons and other things I care about. In a nutshell, I intend to take you through my life as a fashion forward, christian law student on the journey to fulfil purpose and leave my footprint on earth.
bloomingbase 