Seedtime Foundation: Key player in nation building

Adetola Oladeji, a woman who possesses a captivating and magnetic charm, retired a few years ago capping a profoundly meritorious career of over three decades in one of Nigeria’s highly recognised international high schools – one that’s frequently mentioned among the top private international schools in Nigeria. At this school, she exceptionally distinguished herself and got to the peak of her career, retiring as the Head of Schools – the highest academic and administrative authority, a position she held for many years and one that made her interact with the children of the high and mighty in society.

Now mothering and championing the vision and mandate of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Seedtime Foundation, that she founded in 2011 for the educational advancement of the Nigerian child, she is by so doing actively driving innovation to expand access to quality educational curriculum to a select bunch of children in an unlikeliest way – going deep into the “hoods” to identify indigent teenagers, a considerable number of which would later come to find out that the answers to the fulfilment of their ambitions lie buried in the vision of this woman who is completely unconnected to them by any stretch. For many of these kids, the stories have been uncomplimentary – unsurprisingly. This is because when you have been in a situation for as long as most of them have been – growing up in those rough neighbourhoods, you are all but certain what to expect with the shaping of their psyche and ego as a result of all their traumatic experiences.

At a time when many others shy away from operating in her area of influence, she is unfazed and guarded by an ideology that explains her drive and beliefs: “Develop a child and you have positioned the country on a correct path but as long as we fold our arms and continue to watch the fortunes of our educational system dwindle, things will continue to remain the same.” Armed with this unbending spirit – she has got an awful lot, I must emphasise, Adetola and her team are laser focused on their tasks of relentlessly fishing out those indigent young girls and boys – students of some public secondary schools in the Agege education zone, many of whom, sadly, are psychological victims of the economic conditions of their parents and the places of their upbringing, for enrolment into the foundation’s programmes.

Seedtime Foundation, essentially, is a charity organisation that has initiated over 45 projects and events to educate, serve, and empower the Nigerian child. It has four key initiatives:

“The Blossom Initiative and The Boys of Valour Initiative”, which cater to 14 to 17-year-old girls and boys from less-privileged backgrounds to foster their personal development, equip them with essential life skills, and build collaborative, leadership and entrepreneurial skills required to close the massive gap which exists between public and private education in Nigeria. Aside from the other mouth-watering programmes typically lined up for these children, there is usually a three-week capacity building programme in August of every year where they learn about entrepreneurship (they embark on a 3-day work experience/internship program in corporate firms), etiquette, digital literacy, introduction to coding, robotics, career guidance, goal setting, etc.

Third initiative: “Adopt-A-School-Initiative”- aimed at improving child education in public primary schools. They are working with the Local Government Education Authority to identify and prioritise the needs of these children in order to provide conducive and academically stimulating learning environments. Valuable projects carried out: equipped six schools with libraries, transformed nursery classrooms, which elevated the overall well-being, intellectual development, and writing and communication skills of these children. I am particularly thrilled about the public primary school initiative because I am a proud product of three LEA primary schools in Kaduna and the experiences of these young boys and girls mirror exactly mine.

The fourth initiative is the “Nurture-A-Child-Initiative”. For this programme, they believe a child is not only owned by his/her biological parents but must be raised by the community. They reach out to thousands of children in so many slums in Lagos State to shine the light on the not-so-privileged children. Gifts such as books, school bags, food packs, etc, are happily shared to them.

As they say, sometimes major breakthroughs come from unexpected places. This cannot be truer for this foundation as it actively pursues its agenda of creating, promoting and supporting programmes that will directly improve the quality of education of Nigerian child. I must stress that the manner in which the visionary scouts for these indigents is as surprising as it is heart-warming and the mission is simple and crystal clear, one that the foundation has unapologetically stuck to: pump confidence into these little ones by explaining the need to dig in a little deeper, embolden them to not let their circumstances define who they are and ultimately give voice and hope to the voiceless and hopeless teen boys and girls in order to develop the capabilities that would enable them achieve their ambitions, just like other enormously privileged kids. As the foundation exposes them to the kind of tutelage and mentoring the founder has championed for years, it never misses the moment to exceed expectations in service delivery to all attendees.

Seeing the way Oladeji has pursued this vision with unparalleled vigour, unbreakable character and resolute devotion, you will be correct to say she has skin in the game. Notwithstanding, a crowd of fascinated on-lookers can easily make the argument that she and her team, in their bid of selflessly providing enduring solutions to identified societal problems, are being handsomely paid or perhaps that they are executing a fully funded government programme. Far from any of these as neither is the case. All the foundation’s programmes are exclusively self-financed from personal funds and voluntary donations, and several tens of millions of naira or more have been judiciously spent in educational adventures that have brought remarkable internal, social and behavioural transformations in the lives of all the participants.

It is oftentimes a possibility to see many NGOs in Nigeria overpromise but eventually under deliver – making grand promises they cannot keep, leading to a potential loss of trust. And in some instances, it is pretty much a smokescreen as many position strategically in the system for pecuniary gains and not necessarily to address the social, environmental, educational, or humanitarian issues that are prevalent in the ecosystem. With this, many Nigerians have adopted a posture of ‘we’ll believe when we see it’. For Seedtime Foundation, however, that is not the case. For many who believe that the government is incapable of making pivotal strides alone in the educational sector of this country, then you are not alone. The Seedtime Foundation shares that same sentiment and serves as the underlying motivation for its innovative approaches, which are sucking the energy out of the old guard for many traditional NGOs. It is equally responsible for its resolve to give back to society, with the founder providing visionary leadership to deploy her years of expertise in the educational sector to better the lives of children she does not even know a thing about, other than her wish to see the general development of these children with massive potential but limited opportunities.

As the saying goes, “what you can’t measure, you can’t improve”, measuring its impacts is a critical part of the process evaluation as the NGO contributes its quota to solve one of Nigeria’s hotspot issues in a sector that is in dire straits – the declining fortunes of the educational system. The synergy and authenticity in the team, which has endured the relentless financial strain for years, making it to jettison essential parts of its curriculum due to paucity of funds, is not in doubt, without which the education expedition could be over before it starts. Beyond the heroic impressions it is making by out-boxing all stumbling blocks as it maintains control over the awry situations they constantly face, which makes a foundation like hers a little rarer and valuable, its ability to establish a sound atmosphere in the socio-cultural ecosystem from where the students are drawn, helping the students to reset priorities and be more socially-incline,d is highly commendable. It must be emphasised also that the foundation’s brilliant performance so far, which stands in stark contrast to many convectional NGOs in spite of the challenges it has been up against, is a referendum on the broad systemic failures in the Nigerian educational system.

We may not be able to tell the full positive story of the foundation since inception; nevertheless, to see timid, underprivileged kids taking up leadership roles and attaining decent momentum in academic performance immediately after gaining exposure to the foundation’s skilfully assembled curriculum can well be viewed as a measurement of its success. Despite their challenges, the kids have shown remarkable resilience and outstanding creativity. Nothing prepared the foundation for the scope and depth of the phenomenal waves every of the steps it has taken have had on every kid that has passed through the foundation. You need to witness the wins after wins they rack up to appreciate the role they are playing in the socioeconomic terrain of the country which reminds me of the statement I grew up hearing in Hausa language, “Gani ya fiji” – meaning literally, seeing is better than hearing.

Every year, the foundation checks its ‘bounty’ to see just how successful its ‘harvests’ have been for the year and I must say it usually ends on a pretty high note. Talking about bounty and harvests, there are a few that can be referenced from the whole lot. For instance, a set of SS1 girls, groomed and tutored by the foundation, competed with their peers from renowned private schools in the Technovation Competition, where apps were developed to provide solutions to identified needs in the society, and interestingly, they came third. In addition, a number of these children have gained admission to an array of Nigerian universities for their undergraduate studies under the scholarship programme funded by the foundation. Notably, an American-recognised Nigerian university offered two of the girls fully sponsored scholarships for their undergraduate studies via the network and platform of the foundation, and a young teen girl who bested all other students in the Agege zone in the last SSCE examination with straight A’s is a product of the foundation.

To ease the crushing economic pains of poor and struggling Nigerians, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been reported to embark on the distribution of welfare packages to Nigerians. However, there have been growing concerns about the transparency of the exercise, drawing stiff criticisms. The story of this NGO can well be summed up in that popular saying, “Truth doesn’t need a title. It just needs courage”. Needless to say, Oladeji, whom I’ve known personally now for about two and a half decades, runs a meticulously decent and openly transparent foundation by a long shot. With her unparalleled and patriotic performance, and the ability for the foundation to stick to its core values of completely changing the game as far as remaking the narratives for the lot of kids, inspite of the monumental challenges it has faced over its 14-year period, it is not out of place to make a case, casting the foundation as a veritable platform for the Federal Government and Lagos State Government, and even for the offices of The First Ladies of Nigeria and Lagos State to reach so many underprivileged and extremely poor children in our community in a manner that is guaranteed to be copiously honest, accountable, and robust and with the assurances that the funds would be wisely applied to the designated purpose.

Ande, a financial and political economy expert, writes from Lagos and can be reached via [email protected]