(Read the first part of this story on our website.)

(Part 2/2) “Thank God you’re buying the socks, when are you bringing them?“, the teacher asked. I said next week. In my mind, I thought it was socks for just the few kids that were being punished, then he said: “Are you buying socks for all the kids in the school?” I said, “Yes, but, wait a minute, how many kids do you have here?” He told me there were 1000 kids and I was like: “What! Oh my God!” There I was, a broke hungry girl, wondering how I’m going to get money to buy socks for a thousand kids.  

But it happened that someone in my church saw that I wasn’t smiling and asked if I was okay. I told them I promised some kids I was going to buy socks for them and I have no idea where I am going to get the money from. She said “Oh! are you serious, I’ll give you the money, how much is it?” It was about 35,000 naira and she gave it to me. I couldn’t believe it. 

That’s how I then bought socks for 1000 kids. You should have seen their faces, they were shouting, jumping, excited because they got just a pair of socks. And I’m wondering, really, “it’s just a pair of socks.” So I became inspired to do more and worked with a friend. We then bought exercise books the next month. Then the next term we brought water bottles and it went on from there. I was getting support from people too and then a lawyer friend advised me to register it as a NGO, so people would take me seriously. That’s how ‘Beyond the Classroom’ was born. 

Our work primarily is with kids in public primary schools in Lagos. We provide school supplies annually. We also train their teachers every term. We run weekly after school clubs: our volunteers run the math club, readers and writers club, literary debating, and music clubs every Wednesday. We organise Christmas parties, graduation ceremonies for the children from primary 6 to Js1 (Junior Secondary School), and the most exceptional student gets a scholarship to a private secondary school. We also work with these schools to try and get some of the students enrolled, sometimes on scholarships. We commemorate a lot of days like World Health Day, World Literacy Day etc. just to help them understand what’s happening in the world and learn beyond the four walls of their classroom, which is where we got the name. 

It’s been five years now and the experience has been amazing.