KIR Foundation's 4th Quarter Newsletter, 2017

Kindly find attached the KIR Foundation 4th Quarter Newsletter 2017 and a Christmas Card from all of us at KIR Foundation.

Best regards always,

The KIR Foundation Team.

The Young Leader’s Guide

The Young Leader’s Guide is a leadership manual for secondary school students published by KIR Foundation in 2015. It is also an educational tool used by KIR Foundation for its Inclusive Young Leadership Academy (YLA). The Inclusive Young Leadership Academy is a One-day Workshop for newly elected leaders in Secondary Schools. The aim of the Inclusive Young Leadership Academy is to provide tools for the prefects to become mentors and peer educators in their respective schools and to advocate and create awareness about inclusive education.

The Young Leaders Guide is a leadership tool that helps young leaders to harness their leadership skills, thereby enabling them to become reliable leaders and citizens. The first edition of the Inclusive Young Leadership Academy was in 2014. Since 2014, a total of three hundred and seventy-six (376) young leaders have attended the KIR Foundation Inclusive Young Leadership Academy (YLA) and distributed over one thousand, three hundred (1,300) copies of the leadership manual to young people in Rivers State, Lagos State and Ghana.

The Young Leader’s Guide is currently being used by some secondary schools in Nigeria as a text for Leadership Education which is under Religion and National values, a subject approved by the Federal Ministry of Education.

twitter video

#Throwback to #InternationalLiteracyDay #ILD2017 #SDG4 #ILD4KIR #ThrowbackThursday #TBT

Commemorating International Literacy Day at Government Secondary School (G.S.S) Oyigbo

To mark this year’s International Literacy Day which annually holds on the 8th of September, Keeping it Real (KIR) Foundation is organizing a Prize Giving Day Event at Government Secondary School (G.S.S) Oyigbo. The event holds on Friday, the 8th of September 2017 as

part of the activities to commemorate this year’s International Literacy Day and round off a month long Summer School Project at the school. The Summer School Project was organised to keep the students constructively engaged during the long holidays and broaden their knowledge in difficult subjects especially the compulsory subjects.

The Prize Giving Day event will feature the award of prizes to the best performing students and teacher during the Summer School Project. Other activities will include a Talk show, Dialogue session and Drama. The theme of the International Literacy Day is ‘Literacy in a Digital World’.

REBUILDING LIVES THROUGH EDUCATION

When Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation paid a project visit to Mubi Hills in Adamawa State in May 2017, we met Calmas. Calmas is a ten year old creative boy, who made a toy car out of corn stock, old rubber slippers and used plastic disinfectant container. Calmas has dreams of one day becoming a soldier. Godiya is an eight year old

girl. She is in primary two and one day, wants to become a teacher. This is a story about how all the children in North-Eastern Nigeria go to school. These children love school, have dedicated teachers, a lot of books and learn in solar powered classrooms.

Well, this ideal tale is not exactly the true picture of how things are in Schools in Northern Nigeria. However, this is the reality that Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation and implementing partners, want to create in the following adopted schools; CDM Primary School, Laila, CDM Primary School Lainde, CDM Nursery School Gilmari in Mubi Hills and in Ethnosreach Primary School in Ma’zumari, Niger State in Nigeria.

The children in the primary schools that need educational support are between the ages of 3 years and 14 years. They have all desires like every child at that age. Also, they are curious and inquisitive, fun loving and playful, with a strong hunger to learn and grow up as fast as they can. However, the parents of the children cannot afford to buy exercise books and writing materials for them as they are illiterate peasants who do not have enough to buy the educational supplies that their children need to have a quality education.

The International Literacy Day (ILD) 2017 with the theme, ‘Literacy in a Digital World’ will be commemorated by Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation at Government Secondary School (G.S.S) Oyigbo to roundup our one month Summer School Project. Also, KIR Foundation is using this opportunity to ask you to invest in our ‘Back to School’ Project for our beneficiaries in rural Northern Nigeria.

Dear Donor, supporting this project will enable over 270 primary school children in rural Northern Nigeria receive educational supplies in form of text books, school bags, exercise books, writing materials, storybooks and reading corners. In addition, the International Literacy Day ‘Back to School’ project will provide teaching resources for the schools and its teachers.

Invest in the Education and lives of these children to make our world a better and safer place. For donors in diaspora kindly donate via https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-270-children-in-northern-nigeria/ while donors in Nigeria, kindly send your donation to GT Bank Account Name and Number: Keeping It Real Foundation Ltd/Gte – 0052683160. 

THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED LEARNS ICT AT KIR FOUNDATION

"I have been visually impaired since birth. As a visually impaired person, I have faced several challenges including discrimination and delays in my education. In other places I’ve been to, they don’t allow us (visually impaired) to touch the computer systems but here at KIR Foundation, we were allowed to touch and work with the computer system and when we don’t understand,

they take time to explain to us so that we can understand”. – Chidindu Ruth Nwa-Jesus

Chidindu Ruth Nwa-Jesus is a twenty-two year old visually impaired young lady. She loves to read, operate computers and dance. As a visually impaired individual, Chidindu as a visually impaired youth has faced several challenges including discrimination and delays in her education. In 2015, Chidindu and her younger sister, Esther Nwa-Jesus, who is also visually impaired, visited the KIR Foundation Inclusive Resource and Rehabilitation Centre. The sisters spoke about their desire to learn computer appreciation which would strengthen their capacity and dreams of going to university.

In their discussion with the KIR Foundation team, they spoke about friends, who are blind and lacked braille slates; and also had the desire to learn ICT. They asked if KIR Foundation could organize ICT training for persons with visual impairment. Regrettably, the KIR Foundation team had to tell them that we lacked the resources to carry out the trainings. Furthermore, the sisters and their friends received braille slates from KIR Foundation to aid their academic studies.

Subsequently, KIR Foundation wrote to Small World International Women’s Organization for Charity for a donation of laptops with Job Access with Speech (JAWS) for the visually impaired. As a result of the partnership with Small World, KIR Foundation started the ICT training for four visually impaired beneficiaries at the KIR Foundation Inclusive Resource and Rehabilitation Centre on the 17th of July 2017.

“I want to thank Small World for funding this training. Right now, I can now use the computer especially word processing. ICT training will help me improve my ICT skills and communicate better with others in Society”. - Chidindu Ruth Nwa-Jesus, Beneficiary of the ICT Training for Visually Impaired Persons (ViPs)

TALKADEMY FOR TEENS WITH JOYCE DANIELS

“Every time I need to speak before a crowd, I get so nervous that I feel like running away” – KIR Holiday Programme Participant.

As interesting as public speaking may appear, it is still a hard task for many as they have a fear of speaking in front of an audience or not knowing exactly how to communicate their ideas.

Public speaking is the process or act of performing a speech to a live audience. It serves to inform, to persuade and/ or to entertain an audience. Joyce Daniels in partnership with Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation will organize ‘Talkademy’ at the KIR Foundation’s Inclusive Community Centre for teens. The teens and young adults will improve their communication and public speaking skills as they learn from a master the skill of speaking with confidence.

To be part this programme send ‘register’ to 08171988475 for a fee of two thousand naira (N2,000) only.

KIR Foundation Book donation and visit to the Adopted Schools in Northern Nigeria

Thanks to our donors with your support we have provided educational supplies to 120 pupils in Adamawa state to promote quality education.

We are building a classroom block for the children at CDM Primary School Gilmari to provide them with quality education to develop their communities in the future.

We will provide thirty (30) desks for the children at CDM Primary School, Laila in Mubi Hills. Thank you for your support, let’s do more.

We are committed to building a classroom block for the pupils of CDM Primary School, Lainde.  

Thanks to our donors with your support.   

Let’s invest more to increase literacy rate in Nigeria.

Book donation: http://bit.ly/2t5pZuf

Visit to Gilmari : http://bit.ly/2tp0xSN

Visit to Laila: http://bit.ly/2tp3KSv 

        Visit to Lainde: http://bit.ly/2tqgEiH 

The Dreams of A Street Child

Okon Akpan rapped “I’m unstoppable, I’m unstoppable, I’m unstoppable, I’m unstoppable”.

At an event organized by the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) for street children to commemorate the Day of The African Child, Mrs Bitebo Gogo, Executive Director of Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation, spoke to the youth about the power of leadership and asked them, “What are your dreams for the future”.
In their response they stated their desire to get off the streets and actualise their dreams of becoming a mechanic, an electrician, a tiller, a baker and a musician.

Okon Akpan who hawks on the streets of Port Harcourt said he wants to be a musician in the future. He did a short rap free style for the audience in which he wowed everyone with his performance and in the end of it he stated “I’m unstoppable”, with which we believe given his current attitude, he will be unstoppable.

The 16th of June was a day set aside by the African Union to mark the struggles of the African Child and its known all over the world as the Day of The African Child. This year the theme for the Day of the African Child was “Accelerating protection, empowerment and equal opportunities for children in Africa by 2030″. To commemorate this day, AWLA organized an event for street children in Rivers State. Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation among other Non-Profit Organizations in Rivers State partnered the event.

The dreams of the child in the street can become a reality, with more advocacy, sponsorship and empowerment. Stand up for the African child today and empower them for a sustainable future.

Inclusive Young Leadership Academy

1 day countdown to KIR Foundation Inclusive Young Leadership Academy (YLA)!

Invited schools should make it a date.

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” – Vince Lombardi

On Wednesday, the 24th of May 2017, KIR Foundation will be holding the 4th Annual Inclusive Leadership Academy (YLA) with the objective of building the capacity of the newly elected prefects of twenty-five (25) Public, Private and Inclusive (Special) Secondary Schools in Rivers State. A total of 100 students will participate in the one day workshop.
The Inclusive Young Leadership Academy (YLA) is part of the activities to commemorate and round up the events of KIR Foundation’s Global Campaign for Education Action Month in this month of May. Last year, KIR Foundation organized the 2016 Inclusive Young Leadership Academy (YLA), for sixteen (16) public, private and special secondary schools and eighty (80) students participated.

The objective of KIR Foundation’s Inclusive Young Leadership Academy is to strengthen the leadership capacity of newly nominated and elected school prefects or students’ council in selected Senior Secondary Schools in Port Harcourt. Also, during the one day workshop, facilitators will make presentations on various aspects of leadership, awareness and advocacy will be created about inclusive education, teachers will be motivated to raise the next generation of leaders and the government will be encouraged to make education for all a priority in their development agenda.

The need for the Inclusive Young Leadership Academy cannot be overemphasized. The participants will be given the information they need to successfully influence and lead their peers. At the end of this one-day workshop, the young leaders would have improved their leadership skills and abilities.

After the 2016 Inclusive YLA, Michael Ejike, a prefect in Community Secondary School Nkpolu Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt in Rivers State, a participant and also the winner of the KIR Foundation’s Children’s Day Essay Competition said, “I want to be an exemplary leader, so I can advise my peers to be like me and have an impact on their behaviour”.

The Inclusive Young Leadership Academy (YLA) gives Keeping It Real (KIR) Foundation another opportunity to raise innovative leaders who seek to be exemplary and who would aspire to become global leaders in whichever platform of leadership they assume in the future.

KEEPING IT REAL (KIR) FOUNDATION JOINS THE GLOBALGIVING COMMUNITY

KIR Foundation is now part of theGlobalGiving Community. In the month of March 2017, KIR Foundation participated in the GlobalGiving 2017 March Accelerator. The March Accelerator is a crowdfunding campaign for nonprofits to raise funds for their projects; it took place between 13th March 2017 to March 31st, 2017. The KIR Foundation project on the platform is ‘Invest in the Education of 270 Children in Northern Nigeria’ - http://bit.ly/2nCjnmZ

One of the major barriers to school enrollment and retention in Northern Nigeria is the lack of educational supplies. This project will enable 270 primary school children in rural Northern Nigeria receive educational supplies in form of text books, school bags, exercise books, writing materials, storybooks and reading corners. Also, the project will provide teaching resources for the schools and its teachers. 

Kindly tell your friends and family about our project; share the link on your blogs or social networks. You can use the ‘share’feature on the project page to email your network, or just bring us up in conversation. You know your friends and family best so use your own words - tell them why you chose our project and what it means to you.

Thank you for sharing this within your network and look out for project reports as we implement this project and transform the destinies of vulnerable mission children in Northern Nigeria.

KIR FOUNDATION CO-SPONSORS THE EINSTEIN SCIENCE CHALLENGE

KIR Foundation as co-sponsor of the Einstein Science Challenge Project participated in the closing ceremony and award of prizes. The Einstein Science Challenge is the signature project of the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt G.R.A District 9140.  This year was its fifth edition and the event held on Thursday 30^th March, 2017 at the main field of the Holy Rosary Girls College, Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

At the Closing Ceremony of the Einstein Science Challenge Project, KIR Foundation was duly represented by Mrs. Bitebo Gogo, the Executive Director. She presented twenty-five copies of ‘You Have a Brain’ by Ben Carson, which were donated by KIR Foundation.

Also, KIR Foundation donated three plaques to the overall winners; Njoku Godswill Olihe of Niger Delta Demonstration School, Eze Chileta of Our Lady of Fatima Secondary School and Ogbeye Phillip of Community Secondary School, Oginigba which were the overall winner, first and second runner up respectively.

The objective of the Science Competition organized by the Rotary Club of GRA, Port Harcourt District 9140 is to encourage interest in Science education among Senior Secondary School Students. 

In line with our vision and values, KIR Foundation in committed to inspiring change through learning by looking out for ways to collaborate as we 'raise innovative leaders committed to lifelong learning to transform their communities'.