A World at School-Global Youth Ambassador Nina Mbah Commemorates the National Children’s Day in Nigeria

It was a truly memorable day for the staff and student of a little Community School in Gidan Kwano village of Chanchanga Local Government Area, of Niger State, North- Central Nigeria. The school is a makeshift building with three class rooms and chalk boards in each class. It is run by its young principal, Mr. Ahmadu Ezekiel who kindly welcomed us to sensitize, educate, inspire as well as to have fun with the children.

The event theme was: “The Beauty of a Secure Education”.

Objectives of the Event:

1.  To encourage and motivate the children to keep seeking education despite the security challenges in Northern Nigeria. 
2. To find out first hand from the children and teachers why an estimate of 50 percent of the children in the community are not in school. 
3. To teach the children on the need to be security conscious. 
4. To inspire the population of children not in school on the need to seek education. 
5.    To give them an opportunity to commemorate, celebrate and have fun as other privileged children do. 

At first most of the children couldn’t respond to the questions we asked them, even the ones about themselves because expression was an issue. When asked why his sibling didn’t come to school, a boy replied in Hausa language. For others it was timidity. After being pressured to tell us why they came to school, a boy offered to whisper “Because money dey inside.” None was ready to share who they wanted to be in future and when one finally said he wanted to be a doctor the rest followed suit. But with our encouragement they started speaking up. A girl wanted to be a teacher, another girl a lawyer and a boy said to the amusement of all that he wanted to be a politician. We encouraged them to work hard at school and talked to them about security issues. 

We used an origami game to inspire creativity in them by enhancing their recognition of patterns and inspiring an appreciation of steps and stages involved in achieving a goal. After a brief lecture on shapes (as most had difficulty differentiating shapes) we divided the class into eight groups. Three groups came out with beautiful results, neat rectangular boxes of yellow cardboard paper. Inscribed on each cardboard box was the name and future ambition of one of the selected leader. Each completed box revealed its text after shading to their delight, with colored pencils we provided. We told them to ask their parents, guardians and teachers what it would take to become what they want to be, write it down and keep in their boxes.

We distributed stationeries as gift items to all the students and guided the students to sign their support of the “We want to learn in#SAFESCHOOLS” using drawing paints and their handprints. At this time other children who didn’t go to school had gathered around, eager to join in, to know what was happening. Some were just returning from the farm. We had exciting shots and there was a precious moment when one of the students was handed the digital camera to give us a snap shot. She fidgeted with the button for a while and suddenly, to her surprise and ultimate amusement, the light flashed and the image of us appeared on the small screen in her hands. Startled and laughing shyly, she returned the camera to us.

We thanked the principal, teachers and dismissed the children after a lovely chant of the National Anthem.

Special Vote of thanks

Am using this medium once more to show a special appreciation to Mr Benson Tarfa for His Immense contributions intellectually and other wise, Miss Favour Bitrus for her unwavering support throughout the planning stage and at the event, Ambassadors for Development Network (ADN) for the resources provided, our media partners for helping to spread the word and to the Staffs and Students of Prevail School Gidan Kwano Village, Minna Niger State Nigeria for your co-operation and for sparing us your wonderful time, Thank you and God bless you.