#iMatterToo Uyo Street Children Project Press Release

Street children and teens are recognized as growing social problem in cities around the world. One key challenge associated with them is their lack of identity both at the individual and social levels. At the individual level, they are faced with herculean task of personal identity, self-definition, imbibing societal values, setting personal goals, illiteracy and charting ambitions; they are also faced with the challenge of self-esteem which is usually very poor. They do not see themselves beyond their today and most times, do not think about their future and career paths; they are not knowledgeable in how to set SMART life goals which will direct their life ambitions and take them off the streets; they are also not very knowledgeable with entrepreneurship opportunities despite being situational street entrepreneurs with little sales and services they offer in different capacities on the streets, which we believe can be harnessed by equipping them with the proper knowledge of entrepreneurship and exposing them further to entrepreneurial soft skills that will see them prospering their way out of the streets and into the future.

These glaring challenges are what #iMatterToo Uyo Street Children Project intends to address. Thus, the project is a collaborative effort between two young passionate individuals, Benjamin Omin Itu and Chimezie Vivien Anajama, both resident in Uyo, Nigeria, who are willing to go extra mile in helping 30 street children/teens who desire to have positive self-identity, improved self-esteem and capacity, personal grooming, basic literacy development and entrepreneurial soft skills in the city of Uyo, Nigeria, during the first quarter of 2017. This project is expected to kick off with an online crowd-sourcing campaign in the month of January while the execution of project proper begins in February – March 2017 with 8 week-ends workshop classes. Subjects will include: Basic Communication, Arithmetic, Social Etiquette, Goal Mapping, Personal Re-orientation, and Hand Craft.

This idea behind this project is an out-of-box thinking because in the words of the organizers, “though we acknowledge that we lack the capacity to take them off the streets but we can ameliorate their lives, empower them with knowledge and skills and make them to be better even while on the streets.”

Watch the #iMatterToo Campaign video Here