if the above video doesn't play on your device, pls click here to watch on youtube
Hi Guys!!!
I am celebrating a group of people who are
staking their heads and finances to make a difference in our
generation. They are a group using
what they have, their God-given talents, to enforce change in our society. They intend to
use poetry, art works, photography and more to create
awareness and by the same means, take poor kids off the
streets of Lagos, who are engaged in menial jobs but who are desirous of making a better life for
themselves. They plan to help these
children realize their hopes and ambition, by first ensuring they are able to go
to school through scholarship up to the university level and empowered via
skills acquisition training alongside.
 |
| Mr Rufus Ashiru |
I did a short interview
with the brain behind this initiative, Rufus Ashiru popularly known as Priceless. He is pictured above.
Here it goes:
1.
1. What is 'Love, Life,
Hope and the Child' about and how can people get to know
more about you?
Priceless Arts, a group of
volunteers who are majorly poets, artists, song writers and photographers are
partnering with the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture to organize
periodic Art exhibitions.
Priceless Arts birth the
initiative of ‘Love, Life, Hope and the Child’ where
Art (at the exhibitions) would be used to unravel, and amplify the agitations, dreams and
ambitions of the child in order to solicit for collaborative effort from the
corporate world as well as individuals. Together we can join hands to grant
their educational dreams and ultimately grant them a window, if not a flood gate
of opportunity to make a difference in our world. The exhibition would feature
predominantly photography, and also paintings, sculpture, textile, poetry, stage
performances and songs dedicated to the project. All the priceless works will be
presented to the scholarship donating organizations by the donor
artists. We have a blog site, lovelifehopeandthechild.wordpress.com
where you can read more about us.
2. What inspired
this?
I was inspired by God to
start this. Actually, I was in my service year
in Jalingo and
we went for this ministration organized by our NYSC family
house, just about an hours jog from my house and we hit
this community where they don’t wear clothes. They had no idea what Jalingo was or what Taraba was or what Nigeria was. Also we went to
another community where there was a crater, an inactive volcano. We climbed into
the crater to meet a settlement that I would date to 1801
based on the way they are living. They were looking at us
like strangers. It was like Indiana Jones in the Temple of doom. Outside the crater is civilization, inside is
like the 15th century. We tried to communicate which was impossible. When we turned
to leave, they were eulogizing and
celebrating that we were leaving. These people come out of the crater once a
week to do exchange by barter. They trade what they have
for what they need. What I saw
inspired ‘Life, Love Hope and the
Child’ dream. I imagined that if nothing is done about
this, these people would live and die where they are
without any education.
Aishat Ismail, the former Women Affairs Minister (June 1999 – May 2003) was
snatched away by missionaries from her father in the village. They had noticed
she was smart and they stole her away before they married her off. She was sent
to school and later became the minister for women affairs.
3.
3. What is the dream, the goal, the
mission and vision?
The Mission and
Vision
•
‘Giving education to the educationally
disadvantaged’
•
‘Giving hope to raise
visions’
The dream and the goal
I don’t consider ‘Love, Life Hope and the
Child’ my
venture. I see it as something we ought to pass down. I want a vision that would
outlive the founder. I look for a time when ‘Love, Life,Hope and the Child’ would ring
a bell in every deprived African nation and then it would
work like UNICEF, where children would become better leaders and better people. Idescribe it as a legacy chain to be passed on to the younger generation. Whether we like
it or not, we are in charge of our future and whether we like it or not, the
quality of what we give them today would determine what
would happen to our children tomorrow. The hired killers, the boko haram etc they came from somebody’s
womb. Therefore, the dream is to
give every street child an opportunity for a better life.
4.
4. What has the experience
been like and what are your biggest challenges?
It has been very challenging especially in the area of funds. Getting people to
respond can be difficult especially the large organizations. The smaller
businesses respond better. It hasn’t
been very easy. We keep spending and there is no ready
source bringing in income. We spend so much trying to create awareness and to
convince people to be a part of this but we are not
discouraged yet.
5.
5. How do you sustain the
project?
Personal pockets,
volunteers spend their own
money and everyone comes together to
help when the need arises. We don’t have any sponsors as
we speak.
6.
6. Do you have permanent staff or just
volunteers?
We have loads of
volunteers who are majorly writers, artists,poets, photographer’s etc. who come together when the need arises. We direct small synopsis to appeal to people’s
heart and once people are touched and understand the reason for this, they would
be moved to be a part of this. We are about 26 volunteers as at today. We have
about 8 photographers, 4 poets, engineers etc and they have all given their all
to the project in one way or the other.
7.
7. You have a seminar and an exhibition coming up. Can you
tell us a little about that?
The Seminar would take place sometime in
April. We intend for the Seminar to be published and aired to give us presence
and also serve as some publicity for the exhibition.
The exhibition on the
other hand would hold in June. The presentation and
exhibition would be an awareness and
a scholarship awarding program. We trying to get people on our team who have names at stake. We reasoned that if
we can’t be believed by persuasion,
then we should be believed by icons. So we are trying to get icons on
board so we can use their trust as leverage. Rather than trying to raise huge funds, we have decided to just ask
that you send a child to school. You can single send or co-send, just send. We
are more passionate about university education even though we see some children
through secondary school. We are budgeting 2.5million per child to provide
adequately for that child plus an empowerment program.
The companies would be
there, the institutions that would institute the scholarship points and as well
as the insurance companies who would collect the money. The money is not coming
to our pockets and that’s the
honesty of purpose there. Our own interest is in the children, to follow them
up, mentor them, motivate them, and make sure they meet the conditions ofscholarship.
8.
8. Is Love, Life, Hope and the Child open
to everyone to join or strictly for artists, poets and the like?
We are open to more volunteers from all
walks of life. We have gone beyond me, myself and I. we have a woman who has
agreed to make shoes for all the kids for free. We would also love to partner as
well with people who share the same vision.
9.
9. How can youths be a part of this and
key in to this?
Any youth with meaningful substance to
contribute is welcome. They can look up our blog-site ‘lovelifehopeandthechild.wordpress.com’
for more information and our contact details.
