HELP! Kids trapped behind Akwa Ibom’s multi-million dollar golf resort need an education

We are trying to change the lives of 4 smart kids living behind the fence of the multi-million dollar Ibom Golf resort in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, and need your help.

I was visiting the Ibom Hotel and Golf Resort over the weekend. It was my third visit to the resort, but the first time I really went around the place. It’s a very beautiful place. I took 2.5km walk with my 4 year old in the evening, and could not believe how amazing the views were.

Sunset at the Ibom Golf Resort, Uyo.

This is why I decided to take a longer walk the next morning, through the golf course itself. I walked through a few of the pars, and was totally wowed by the quality of work put into the grounds. This resort was built over 10 years ago, so I was quite impressed by the work that went into keeping the standards up, considering how bad Nigerians are with maintenance.

Pano view of a section of the course

Akwa Ibom is very humid, with rains pretty much all year round. As my guide took me closer to the edges of the course, I was attracted to the lush, wild vegetation near the resort fence.

This is where my romantic head fuzz came to an abrupt end.

On the other side of the fence, there was a school building. While the yellow walls seemed to have been recently painted, the roof was partially torn off one of the buildings. I did not take a photo.

But a few metres down the road, I was shocked back into reality. Beside the fence of this multi-million dollar golf resort stood a run down homestead; stark, spartan and definitely not belonging on the edge of a world class resort.

I walked by to investigate.

The first thing that stood out was the blacked wall, with writing in chalk. I immediately realized children lived in this house. One child was outside, staring curiously at me as I made my way to the fence. I said good morning, and she greeted back, in english. So we started a conversation.

She attends the primary school nearby, the one with the broken roof, and she does her schoolwork practice on the wall. They don’t really have electricity, so she has to work during the day, outside.

She has three siblings, two older and one younger. But she was obviously the star, shining in her bright pink coat.

There is an automated water system, taking water from the river to irrigate to golf course. The hotel also have purified water running everywhere, including the Marina Restaurant building about a quarter mile from the children’s home, but they had no clean water. Their water either came from the river, or the rain. There was a converted cooler box outside the home, with freshly collected rain water inside.

The resort has power 24/7, which is a novelty in Nigeria. But these kids, who obviously were trying hard to learn, had nothing. Considering the amount of care going into the golf course, the green grass obviously got more care than these children.

In Nigeria, grass in golf courses get better care than citizens

From the conversation among the kids (in the video), the oldest boy stopped schooling at Primary 6. That’s when I realized this might become the fate of the rest of these obviously bright children.

I posted the photos on Twitter, but when I returned to Lagos last night (Sunday, April 24), it was hard to stop thinking about those kids. It is easy to post photos on Twitter, but to make real change, we must go beyond the norm. That’s when I decided to do something.

Now what?

I posted a fund raising tweet last night, and have since gotten commitments of about N2.5m from good friends and tweeps, with about N1.750 cash already paid. I’d like to raise at least N5m.

A few hours later, people are really awesome.

What is the point of the drive?

I believe people’s lives could change. Time and chance just have to be right. I think, if we make a difference in the lives of these kids, we could change their world and inspire others. Based on the success of this drive, we could put pressure on the government which owns the resort to do better by the people in the local area.

What will the money do?

1. Primarily, provide funding for the kids’ education for the next 3-5 years.
2. Get a new home for the family for about the same period (within the same area, but better situated.
3. A fund to ensure stipends for the mother of the kids for a year.
4. If we can, we should repair the roof of the local school near the resort (or pressure SPG, who ‘own’ the resort to do that as CSR).

When these are done, in intend to take the family out for a small makeover, on me, and a visit to that hotel and golf resort that they only get to see through the fence. This is because self esteem is such a big deal.

I have gotten an offer to provide solar electrification for the family. This is a huge deal. Thank you!

If you’re working with an HMO and want to donate free healthcare for a year, that would be much appreciated too.

I am not a charity

I am not a public charity kind of person. I generally do private donations to causes I support, so everything I did since Sunday night is new to me. I’m still looking for a proper charity to work with. Until then, I will collect funds privately and pool, with regular updates until we meet, and hopefully exceed the goal.

For accountability, I will keep very public records, and will work with the charity we eventually select and a bank to manage disbursement of all funds. I will also have an auditor work with my bankers to provide a certified statement of accounts matching all donations to the cause.

My family will support the effort with 20% of our initial goal.

To donate

Editi & Uyai Effiong
0009272670
GTBank
Description: #WriterKids

If you’re paying with a card, you can use the PayMe link — www.payme.ng/writerkids

I did try to setup a GoFundMe account, but it’s bit trickier than I’d hoped, which reminds me that I have to build a crowdfunding product for Nigeria.

Thank you already, everyone!

We have already gone almost halfway in donations. I have already had a trusted person go speak with the mother of these kids about their background and I will be updating here soon.

But the donations so far have been awesome! Thank you all. Let’s got over that goal for the #WriterKids.

Updates

My trusty tour guide went back to the the family yesterday and returned with some updates:

1. The #WriterKids’ mum is a widow, with 7 children! 6 biological kids, one step child. She’s been a single mother since her husband passed.
2. The house they currently live in was built by her and her husband, she inherited the house and land from her late husband.
3. The mother feeds the family doing odd jobs, selling firewood and sharecropping off and on. The children support on the farm.
4. From the our conversation, it seems our task might include a bit of research building ultra-low cost homes. This would ultimately be more sustainable for the family. Thankfully, a friendly architect had offered to help with design — I’m looking for him now.

Updates 29/04/2017

We are up to N3.5 million Naira in commitments. Our friends from Flutterwave set us up with a donation link — www.payme.ng/writerkids. The good folks at Paystack are also setting a link up.

Breakdown of donations so far:

1. We have already received over 2.5m in cash
2. Over 1m in commitments are hopefully coming in next week.

We are definitely looking more into building a little home for the family on the land they own. We’ll be speaking to surveyors, who can confirm the land ownership, and secure a building permit (for free). Once we confirm the ownership of the land, we can then look into firm costing for a low cost home.

Thanks again for all the donations so far collected. Let’s change lives.