Temidire Owolabi | Charitable Activities

Charitable Activities

My Story

My story isn’t one that started with me being kind to myself or identifying with my origin. I grew up in the UK, and I never had a keen interest in learning about African culture, especially Nigeria. The reasons being that it wasn’t often a suitable discussion with my friends. We hardly talked about cultures. Our talks were centered around video games, alarming news, school work, etc. Moreover, I also felt a bit embarrassed when I went to church in my African attire or when my parents came to pick me up from school in their attire. This wasn’t necessarily because I hated Africa; I felt like the odd one out, and I thought my friends would make fun of me.

However, my perspective changed when I watched a video on identity and values. The video told me that everyone is different in their way, even if it’s their skin colour, hobbies, religion, and where they come from. Even identical twins are different in some way. With my change of perspective, my parents encouraged me to do a fact file on Africa to help me get in touch with my culture. During my research, I discovered that there are children just like me who don’t have the basic needs of food, clothes, and water, not to talk of quality education. I couldn’t believe it at first, and my heart went out to them.

My Passion

This discovery got me thinking. This world is not an equal place. Some people are rich, and some people are poor, some countries are wealthy, and some are not, but those who are fortunate enough to have food regularly need to help those who may not have enough food. I saw many pictures of malnourished people. I was shocked when I saw people, especially children with diseases. Well, I knew such challenges existed in the world but I never had the time to self-reflect on them. It is actually REAL. And instantly, I was filled with compassion, empathy, and pity towards children like myself that don’t have it easy in life; subsequently, the passion for helping other children was born. Our tenth birthdays are a big thing for us, but for the first time in my life, I didn’t care about myself or my wants. I just wanted the other children to have a good life. So, instead of having the blast birthday party I had been looking forward to, I chose to pledge my tenth birthday to feed less-privileged children in Nigeria. I partnered with the FoodClique charity organization for the War against Hunger 10th birthday pledge and organised a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds. FoodClique supports the initiative to help malnourished people in Nigeria (my home country) by giving free school meals to children in schools, doing community kitchens for all ages, and box meals for families.

I rallied with my friends, and together we reached out to our parents and carers and they donated money in place of birthday gifts to support the charity cause. We raised about £1,000 from the GoFundMe campaign. Partnering with FoodClique, over 750 children and adults were fed through the following charity projects implemented.

Free School Meals at Destiny Primary School, Makoko, Lagos, Nigeria,
Community Kitchen at The Destitute Home, Okobaba, Lagos, Nigeria and
Food Box Distribution at Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home School in Nigeria.

School Renovation

There were some funds left after my 10th birthday campaign, and I was looking to contribute it towards fixing the water borehole system for Ipakodo Grammar School Ikorodu Lagos Nigeria after seeing some pictures of what it looked like. However, when the Foodclique CEO and team visited the school, they returned with more bad news about its deplorable state.

We made several presentations to Local Churches in Leeds, Nigeria Community in Leeds, a Leeds Councillor, and other prominent places in Leeds to create awareness of Nigeria’s challenges and raise more funds. A 10K Charity Walk for Quality Education in Nigeria GoFundMe campaign was set up to facilitate fundraising.

A delightful total of a little over £5,600 was raised to carry out the renovation. The high school accommodates over 1000 students and has three sections: junior, senior, and inclusive. From the available funds donated, the charity project covered the renovation of the senior and the inclusive section, which is for the speech impaired, blind and deaf children. The school leaders, the Local community, and the FoodClique were extremely grateful for what was accomplished.

We got approval from the Lagos State Government to commission the renovated school. In November 2021, I was invited to attend the commissioning of the renovated Ipakodo Grammar school, where I read my speech during the commissioning event, which was graced by a lot of people and many dignitaries.

Look Ahead

I toured the school afterward and realised that more was to be done. There weren’t books for the school kids in the library, and they were in dire need of one. They still needed books for their Library and furniture for the classrooms. I then reached out to my school, Papplewick, and they were so kind to donate books to the school. There is an ongoing donation to get furniture for the school as well. I’m currently an Ambassador of FoodClique and I support other charities too. I’ve raised funds for, worked with, and currently working with Compassion UK, World Vision UK, and St John Ambulance. There are other charities that I love and I am looking to support.

My journey through charitable works has given me a new perspective on what life’s about and the joy of giving. I love it when I see a person who is happy and healthy. Poverty and unclean water are the kinds of things that shouldn’t be in the world. It’s like when a friend or family member gets a present, I can’t help but smile when they get what they want. That’s why I’m not stopping. Charity is a part of me, and I will always cherish it and won’t stop doing it.

I plan to donate to Afrikindness the rewards and royalties from the book sale. Afrikindness aims to promote the development of emotional intelligence & education of kindness in children most especially black and minority children & young adults in the UK & Africa to help them thrive in their community. The funds will enable Afrikindness reach out to many more children globally and support them to be better version of themselves by being Kind to themselves, kind to others, kind to the environment and kind to Africa. Let us learn, show and spread kindness