LET THERE BE LOVE!

We cannot continue to go around with long and sad faces simply because we feel that there are no more nice and kind-hearted individuals in our society today – even with all the negativism around. Saturday, 15^th of October, 2011, was another joyful day at LOTS Resource Center as the Dustbin Estate kids were shown kindness by two set of kind-hearted people.

The beautiful day began with visit of a group of friends – Mope Kareem, Debo Ogunwo, Toyosi Ebiti, Quam and Diran Nmalowo – who came with one of our friend, Damilola Osilaja, to voluntarily donate some money for the up keep of LOTS Resource Center.  The sum was received by Miss Tolulope Sangosanya, the Executive Director of LOTS Charity Foundation, and she thanked them for their generosity, even on behalf of the children. It was a great way to set the ball rolling for the rest of the activities that had been lined up for the day.

They went round the facility and expressed their satisfaction at the work the members of staff of LOTS Charity Foundation are doing in making sure that the kids who reside in the Dustbin Estate do not live an unfulfilled life, rather to give them a picture of a future they can feature in, thus, making them 7 Star Performers especially in the area of Leadership. At about 1:30pm, Aaron Ugede, stormed the building.

Mr. Aaron Ugede, a humble and compassionate man, with a huge sense of humor, put smiles on the faces of the kids by celebrating his birthday with them and it was fun, fun, and more fun for the kids. Mr. Aaron donated 4 bags of rice, drinks, and 5 cartons of Indomine to the LOTS Resource Center. After some conversations with the kids, play and loads of pictures, 16 kids and the celebrant made their way to Funtopia, Lekki Phase 2 for more celebrations and they went in style. The kids, for the first time in their lives, drove in a Hummer bus, fully air-conditioned with mini screens. They were speechless and ecstatic. And it was obvious that the experience would live with them for the rest of their lives – a truly memorable one indeed. Funtopia, as the name connotes, is a place for catching the maximum fun desired and Mr. Aaron couldn’t have chosen a better place to celebrate his birthday with the kids.

There was a pool, table tennis court and loads of toys and many more games for the kids to choose from, and they sure rocked the place. But unknown to the kids, Mr. Aaron still had another surprise for them. After much play, each kid got a food pack with more lovely items. The food pack had in it a pack of food, math set, toys, chocolate bar and apples.

The kids could not stop smiling and laughing. Their joy knew no bound. They felt free, loved, and good. They forgot their background and mingled with other kids from other places, freely, without inferiority, all because someone decided to show them love.

We live in a world of greed, envy and hatred. Love, for some people is obsolete. For others, it doesn’t and never existed. But like I said earlier, our sadness have been replaced with huge, shinny smile because there are still people who believe in love, who have the capacity to show kindness, even to total strangers.

Let the love go round!

Mrs Kunbi Wuraola - ED, Junior Achievement - visits LOTS Charity Foundation

The kids of Dustbin Estate who take classes at the LOTS Resource Center were given  surprise visit by the Executive Director of Junior Achievement, Mrs Kumbi Wuraola, and her lovely daughters, Tishe, Mishe and Tunmishe. They came into the LOTS Resource Center at 3:10pm, Friday, 9th 2011. The kids were skeptical about their arrival because they were not told about the visit, but after Mrs Wuraola spoke to them in the manner they understood they – the kids – relaxed and began to flow. It was the same for feeling for Tishe, Mishe and Tunmishe Wuraola who were a bit shy at first, but after a while begun to flow with the kids.

Mrs Wuraola said her visit was borne out of the curiosity of her daughters; they wanted to see the kids who live in the Dustbin Estate and have a chat with them. They also brought some gift items (exercise books, foot wear, biscuits and drinks) to give out to the kids.

Before their arrival, the kids of the Dustbin Estate were having a computer class and as the lesson was getting tougher and tougher it became obvious that the visit of Mrs Wuraola and her daughters was a timely one.

The talented kids, Tishe, Mishe and Tunmishe, also gave out copies of their wonderful album titled “Deep down in my heart” to all the kids and they also performed one of their songs to the delight of the kids.

It was interesting to see the kids mingle without fear or complex as they exchanged names, phone numbers and ideas. This goes to show the hard work the staff of LOTS Charity Foundation put in to making these smart, confident and social regardless of their current state and environment.

Vivian, one of the LOTS kids gave a vote of thanks on behalf of LOTS Charity Foundation and Mrs Wuraola promised to come back soon to spend more time and give more gift items to the kids. She went on to encourage the kids and motivate them to strive for excellence in their studies. She pointed out that the most important things for the kids now are to love and obey God, honor and obey their parents and study their books.

The kids took group photographs with the Wuraola’s, and soon after, they left.

Dancing With Koffivi

"We might not be professional dancers but we've got talent..." Kids from the Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle, learning from the professional and fine-tunning their dancing skill. 

Once in a weeks, Koffivi - A professional dance teacher - selflessly makes out time from his busy schedule to teach the kids how to dance to African beats and African stories. He reminds the kids of their African background and their heritage through stories and dance and history.

For the kids, this is a great way of expressing themselves and having fun too. One of the kids impressing with her passion and talent for dance is Cynthia, a 13 year old girl who loves every moment she spends dancing. This extra-curricular activity is one of the ways we use to bring out the best in these kids. One of our goals is to harness the talents and gifts of these young ones and seeing them happy gives us great joy.

"OPPORTUNITY!!!"  That is what these kids need. An opportunity to express their God-given talent. They are the future leaders of our great nation - Nigeria - and we can't afford to have leaders who are deficient in key areas. Lets join our hands together and give these kids solid platform to launch into a prosperous future.

  

Ini Edo Celebrates her birthday with the kids from Dustbin Estate

Ini Edo visits the LOTS Charity Foundation Resource Center

It was a very romantic weather condition on Saturday, the 23rd of April around Ajegunle; one in which people would love to have parties in, and that was the exact mood the children of the Dustbin Estate were in.

The expected visit of famous star actress, Ini Edo, did add extra chill and spice to the beautiful atmosphere as the kids were very eager to see their star. Before the official opening time, 10am, the kids were already trooping into the LOTS Resource Center, all gorgeously dressed in beautiful and colorful attires. The staff of LOTS Charity Foundation had envisaged the crowd to come and made adequate provisions for feeding, drinking and management of the kids with the help of volunteers.

The day’s activity kicked off with a word of prayer, then onto some personal grooming sessions by Mrs Ogogo, of KIR Foundation.  The kids took turns to say one or two things about themselves and what they’d like to be in future. We had very interesting kids with big dreams and aspirations which was nice to hear – with the help from LOTS Charity Foundation, the kids can dare to dream again. We had kids tell us they would like to be Doctors, Lawyers, Nurses, Footballers and even Teachers. They were also asked what they would do for their community when they became the persons they wanted to become and the list was endless. Most notably was that they would do all in their power to clear the area of the refuse dump found everywhere, even inside their homes. Some said they would build hospitals and provide free health care services. Others were more concerned about alleviating the poverty of their immediate families.

The kids were full of life and spirit, cheering all the way. The session was aimed at helping the kids overcome timidity and build self-confidence in them as they had to stand in front of other kids, speak loud, clearly and boldly. The result was outstanding, though we had a few nervous ones.

Even as the kids took turns to speak, they had an eye outside the windows anticipating the arrival of the chief-celebrant, Ini Edo, but she was still nowhere to be found. The session took the kids to 12:30pm before it was concluded. Mrs Ogogo with the help of Preye, did a good job in making sure that all the kids had their chance to speak. Even those that didn’t want participate or were too shy in the beginning picked up courage and said something.

The staff and the volunteers had to apply several tricks to manage the excesses of the kids who were beginning to feel uneasy. We found out that most of them were beginning to get hungry and as soon as Miss Tolu, the Chief Coordinator, gave the word, drinks and biscuits were served.

It looked like our guest, Ini Edo, wasn’t going to make it, but the kids were persistent, still keeping an eye out of the windows to catch her arrival.

There was another session held by Miss Preye. This time, the kids spoke positively into their lives and future. They sang and recited chants of success and victory. This session did liven up the kids as they spoke powerful words of encouragement, success and victory to their lives. This was about 2:30pm. And still no sign of Ini Edo.

After the moral-boosting session, the kids were served their meals and this made some of them begin to lose faith in the coming of the guest. They got their food and as some began to devour the food immediately, others just tucked it somewhere, still with an eye out the window, waiting. And those who tarried were rewarded; they caught Ini Edo’s arrival.

With great joy they screamed, so much so that it terrified other kids who were eating; and not until they knew it was Ini Edo and her entourage that walked in, they were bewildered. They, having spent about 4 hours waiting, jumped on her, giving her hugs and showing her love. It took about 10 to 15 minutes to quell the noise and restore a bit of sanity in the room.

Ini Edo was thrilled by the welcome she received. She greeted the kids and the response was deafening. Some, who didn’t get the opportunity to give her a proper hug at first, jumped of their seats and satisfied themselves. She apologized for coming late because she was not feeling too well. She went straight into the business of the day – loving and giving. Everybody wanted to get close to her and the staff and volunteers kept working, trying to keep sanity and orderliness. One of the high points of event was when Prince, one of the kids, presented her with a birthday card made and designed by the kids a day ago in their arts and craft class. The card had Ini Edo's names on it with a lovely message. It also had the names of all the kids who helped in making the card. With great joy and excitement she recieved it and read out the content to everyone. She, Ini Edo, came with her husband, her elder sister and friends with members of the media.

Ini Edo put smiles on the faces of these kids and laughter in their mouth with her presence, love and gifts. They got branded t-shirts, gift packs and other lovely items which they used to take pictures with her. The chief coordinator of LOTS, Tolu Sangosanya, took Ini Edo, her husband and her team for a tour round the dustbin estate. They made several stops during the tour, visiting the leaders of the community. It was a long, exhausting but interesting tour. Seeing where and how the kids lived with their families was a real experience and an eye opener for the star actress.

After about an hour, they all made their way back to the LOTS Resource Center but on their way through the dustbin estate, a lot of children recognized her and abandoned all that they were doing and followed her back to the Resource Center. She got back and found a cake waiting for her. Once again she was thrilled with the surprise. The kids gathered round about her as she got set to cut her cake. They sang her a birthday song and asked her how old she was, and she said she was 5, 6, 15 and 16 years old; all at the same time. It was a joke everyone caught as nobody expected her to tell her real age. She cut the cake and had another photo session with the kids.

It was a glorious day, with the kids having a fabulous time but she, Ini Edo, had to go and the party had to come to an end. At about 4:45pm, a word of prayer was given, the Grace was shared and every one dispersed.