As a child, I have always been passionate about writing and the communicative arts; expressing myself was never a challenge. I started reading fluently at age four, and it was not long before I began grasping for things to read. This ought to be the case for every growing child, but it is still not so in some underprivileged communities, where some children might only read fluently in adolescence and adulthood. This is caused by the poor education system and limited parental support, as parents are often away looking for daily bread. Most of these parents never even got a basic education!
The circumstances of my childhood thrust me into self-awareness at a young age as I was aware of my strengths early enough, and when my weaknesses showed up, I never really saw them as such because they fed my curiosity. I would only be satisfied once I got the answers, which led to my mantra of “No one is too small or too big, nor too old or too young to learn anything. Anyone can be put to good use as long as the motive to learn is there.” This is something Access To Success Foundation has reinforced in me. The foundation works daily for one of the most overlooked sects of the community: Children! Inculcating the love of learning in children starts with a positive environment, an environment that says YES to their dreams. Dream it and see the Access to Success Foundation bring it to life. We are here in Nigeria making the dreams and aspirations of children and youth come to life. God is cooking a giant pie, and we have a piece in it. If you also want to join in this great adventure that is improving the lives of children daily. You can check out our website.
“Kids have the power to learn technical things and excel at them. Age is no constraint; rather, the earlier they learn, the better for them.” -Mitchell
The mind of children knows no limitations. That is why we, the adults around our children, need not look down on them for any reason. At the After School Academy, all the children, regardless of their backgrounds, are exposed to varied and enlightening activities both in and outside the classroom. All the teachers and staff are accessible and see themselves as custodians so our children can stay curious and creative in their own way. One time, we were in a content brainstorming session for our news report, and I, being their supervisor, used the word “peculiarities.” One of my mentees, Abigail, asked, “Aunty, please, what is the meaning of peculiarities?” I almost rushed to tell her the meaning, but I would have missed the opportunity to teach them the process of things. I asked where was the best place to get the meaning of words. They replied, “The dictionary”. I said good, and we opened the dictionary and found the word. They read out the meaning, and while they were reading out the meaning, I realized that it didn’t fit the actual context in which we were using the word. That led to a change; we changed the word to “specialties”, and they learned two new words.
At the beginning of the year 2023, after moving to the Youth Centre, there was a need for more structure around the work that we do. The presence of the Cook Creative Art Studio helped facilitate that change. We began improving the A2S Kids News Crew to a bigger and more organized crew named The A2S Media. We sprang into action with a survey asking the kids to state whatever it is that they wanted to learn in the arts, and I was amazed at the results. We were able to come up with four groups: writing and content strategy, photography and videography, broadcasting and journalism, and set management. We were off to a great start. Looking at these kids we serve, you would never know they had such flair, but how would you know if you didn’t ask them? Asking children what they want is also very important to their learning; what baffled me most was that most of the children who selected photography and videography had never held a camera before; that’s the power of imaginative thinking. We started holding training sessions at the Cook Creative Art Studio every other Friday. The children began to get familiar with the terms and tools.
For everything we are learning, there must be a time to test it out, and that time was in the 2023 basketball and empowerment camp. Media is a big part of the camp because we must document our daily activities for five consecutive days. My A2S Media trainees and budding artists were ready and set to deliver in camp. I didn’t inform them that it was a kind of examination for them, but I was watching and recording their individual performances so I could help evaluate their strengths and, in turn, help them become more self-aware.
I didn’t need to hire our usual additional support because of their work. I believed they could do it! Olabisi, Anita, God’s power, and Osasogie arrived on time at the camp. After our meeting, I shared with them their different roles. Anita and God’spower were to take notes in the empowerment session and look out for campers interacting more at the empowerment session. Then, they were to approach and ask for an interview with the rest of the media team. This task requires boldness because they were all junior students and not yet 13. These campers were much older and bigger. Still, they were aware of polite asking and persuasion. When campers agreed to be interviewed, that wasn’t the end. They helped prep the camper on some interview questions before we shot the video. Olabisi helped with the setup of equipment because we didn’t have a static studio – we had to be mobile with our tools. She helped a lot because she knew the names of the tools, and that made it easier to communicate with her. I could be recording and then say, “Olabisi, can you please pass me the zoom lens, ” the wireless mics, or the tripod? It made the work so smooth.
You might be wondering what Osasogie was doing while all this was going on. He was safeguarding our tools at the media station. Since it is a public place, we needed to keep and charge batteries and other devices. He was responsible for ensuring everything stayed charged, plus I could call him on our assigned phone to bring us a battery or tools that we needed on the field. It was a well-structured system that worked for us, and they joyfully took turns rotating the roles daily. During the camp, they also had time to pump balls, shoot hoops and make new friends.
I had a more fun time working with them than with some adults because they listened and endeavoured to do what I said in time, respectfully and in a happy mood. I know they also had a fun time learning and trying their hands on new things, and we can’t wait to explore more creativity. We make a great team!
