‘LOVE LIFE HOPE AND THE CHILD’

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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

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‘Giving education to the educationally disadvantaged’

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‘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.