Society consists of different classes of people, some classes need intervention and support for sustainability, while other classes provide support and hope to the needy, it is important to also create sustainable activities for them.

Social Entrepreneurs are individuals who pursue talents that have the potential to solve community-based problems, harness these talents, and ensure they become an important factor in problem-solving.

On this episode of Signals, Abimbola Ajala, a social entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience spanning shares with our host, Adewunmi Oshodi – Tapa how she has been touching Lives through Social Entrepreneurship.

Abimbola Ajala is a social entrepreneur with six years of experience spanning education and civic engagement.  She has won awards for selfless service to the girl child. She leads a project – lend a hand for food drive, pads for a girl and encouraging the girl child to stay in school.

Her journey into social works and advocacy for the girl child was borne out of personal experience while growing up. Educational inequality, seeing young girls drop out of school, teenage pregnancy and young mothers, young girls becoming pregnant and young boys joining cult groups inspired her work in Ebute Meta.

Having a tenacious mom who prioritized education, also made her realize the need to influence a lot of lives positively. She went from talking about education and future choices to assisting less privileged children in paying school fees, food drive and pad a girl initiative.

The journey has been fruitful with support from family friends, philanthropists and organizations. She considers it a blessing to be part of people’s journeys.

There are quite a number of challenges that comes with the work and they vary in different communities, sometimes forced to deal with people who don’t see the value of education or other factors such as hunger. In some cases, the children would rather learn a skill than attend school.

Some parents will tell you that they want their children to hustle because they need their children to support them; they sometimes claimed they had learned a skill and they need to make money immediately.

In the Slum communities, there is a mindset of extreme inter-generational poverty, there is the need to create acceptance for the education of children in such environment.

Poverty, cultural issues, poor backgrounds, and a lack of narrative that works are the common issues associated with why parents sometimes do not take education seriously for their children.  It is important that we do assessments to know what they want, know what is best for them before rendering help.

Some of those being assisted look forward to this instant gratification and validation but they have to teach them that life is a process. It doesn’t happen in a flash.

Her organization has done a documentary about the issue of education, hygiene, how to dispose of sanitary pads, vaginal discharge and all forms of health that concern girls, this was a result of the discovery that there was more to it than just giving pads, they need doctors, counselors; a holistic approach.

There was a school where she distributed sanitary pads, and the girls refused to collect them because the guys were watching, the girls feel ashamed, and there is a stigma attached to menstruation, even from teachers; but the education now goes beyond the girls.

Being a youth team lead ambassador and the first female from Nigeria helped her connect with people who had the same goals as her.

There are lots of organizations that claim to be doing social works; communities have been exposed to different kinds of organizations that just go and take pictures for social media without offering any help. Residents tend to ask if NGOs are politicians, But Abimbola uses a different approach sharing success stories and raising their hopes.

Her social welfare award for selfless service to girls given by the Lagos state ministry was the result of the opportunity to meet with girls who were picked from the streets, girls who were picked up during a raid with boys. They had support from doctors and nurses who came for psychological evaluation of the girls.

There is a selection process that involves Abimbola and her team moving from community to community, interacting with religious leaders and community leaders to hear their stories and know those who really need the assistance.

The number of children assisted varies, they help as much as they are enabled to through support from sponsors who keep in touch to know the progress of the children. The scholarship scheme takes care of everything concerning the child being assisted.

Through her organization, she hopes to help 100 children by the end of 2022, which also depends on partnerships and the availability of those who need help.

To fight generational poverty, Abimbola recommends the provision of incentives that can produce a sustainable environment for the parents with loans among other things, we need to encourage the education of every child and also break the stigma surrounding the girl child education. To support, there are procedures, questions to be asked and forms to fill, people can make donations through the website: http://lahafrica.com, while inquiries can come through Instagram: @lendahandafrica or lahafrica@gmail.com