The inspiration behind the movement
She is the inspiration behind Back to School Africa and our very first beneficiary. In his exclusive interview with BizWatch Nigeria, Anklin narrates the story of Back to School Africa and how Endurance is at the centre of it. Read below:
“I started Back to School Africa in 2018 as a pet project during my service year in Calabar. I served in Army Day Secondary School, Calabar, as a history teacher. It was at this time that I gained first-hand experience on how many brilliant children are forced to drop out of school because of the high rate of poverty that is prevalent in their households.
One case that stood out for me was the story of one of my students, her name was Endurance. She was the most brilliant student in my class but had to drop out because her single mother was unable to keep up with the financial responsibility of seeing her through school. Upon further enquiry, I found that at the age of 14, she was about to be married off to a much older man, who would apparently lessen the financial burden on her family.
Endurance’s situation touched me deeply. There was no way I would allow something like that to happen to her under my watch. I quickly reached out to her family and pledged to take over the responsibility of paying her fees for the rest of her secondary education if they would agree to have her return to school. Fortunately, they agreed, and Endurance was returned to school. As promised, I took over taking care of her school fees with my NYSC allowance.
Endurance’s situation touched me deeply. There was no way I would allow something like that to happen to her under my watch. I quickly reached out to her family and pledged to take over the responsibility of paying her fees for the rest of her secondary education if they would agree to have her return to school. Fortunately, they agreed, and Endurance was returned to school. As promised, I took over taking care of her school fees with my NYSC allowance.
While doing this, I found that a lot more children in that school and community faced similar problems and, in most cases, worse. I tried to help as many as I could, but there was only so much I could do with my limited income. I then began to post the success stories of my beneficiaries on social media and reach out to friends to join in.
The response and support were so incredible that before the end of my service year, we had grown to over 20 volunteers and had successfully restored more than 65 children back to school in Calabar. This for me was a very humbling experience. At the same time, I was motivated to keep it up because our impact had turned out to be a source of great joy and fulfilment for me and the volunteers.”
