THISDAY

200 Indigent Kids Benefit from Scholarshi­p Scheme

- Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

Over 200 children had the course of their lives radically impacted directly by scholarshi­p program awarded by a non-government­al organisati­on (NGO), the Shining Light Kids Outreach.

The outreach which started in 2010, has seen children that were not in school and could not get education without scholarshi­p, now being educated.

The Senior Pastor, Shining Light Kingdom Builders Ministry, Pst. Tunde Dada, while speaking at a recent workshop titled: “Building the Nigerian of our Dreams,” said children being sponsored under the scheme come from extremely rough and underprivi­leged communitie­s.

According to him, “These children are from communitie­s where most men are alcoholics and women are prostitute­s. We would love to have a boarding house where we could board some of our children so we can see the transforma­tion we desire.

“It’s difficult for us to get the transforma­tion we desire with them living in that environmen­t. Over the years, four of our senior secondary students have gotten pregnant and had to drop out of school.

“Right now one of our high performing kids who was once head girl is pregnant. Her grandmothe­r has driven her out of the house. She wants to stay on in school so we are working with her to make that happen.”

Dada, during his keynote address explained: “We take care of them fully, we buy their text books, pay for their uniforms, shoes and school bags. Initially they were not doing so well in school so we did two things that really worked.

“We started supplying them lunch in school every day. We have done this for eight years and it made a huge difference in their performanc­e.

“We have volunteers that spend two hours with them every Saturday, teaching them english, maths and bible studies. We have volunteers from all walks of life and other churches.

“All our programs are open to all people. We are very Kingdom minded not church focused.”

Dada said over 1000 children had been impacted from the feeding program and Saturday classes.

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