Tunde Onakoya, the founder of Chess in slums Africa, has opened up on some of the difficulties he and his team faced during their latest project for children living under the Oshodi bridge in Lagos.
Chess in slums Africa is a non-profit organisation known for using the game as a framework to promote education and raise champions from low communities.
Last year, the group organised a chess training for “51 homeless children” living under the bridge in Oshodi.
During the training, the team took the children on the rudiments of chess as well as mental maths where they were given several puzzles to solve.
The exercise ended with a contest organised to test the participants’ knowledge of what they were taught during the training session.
The project received widespread commendations and got the attention of top figures across the globe including Patrice Evra, the former Manchester United player; and Kevin Tokar, acting Canadian high commissioner to Nigeria.
Both Evra and Tokar visited Oshodi bridge where they played chess with children trained by Onakoya’s team.
In a lengthy Twitter thread on Wednesday, Onakoya said despite the strides achieved by the project, it “wasn’t just a two-hour fairy tale with a happy ending.”
He said after concluding the project, his team had to deal with the challenge of getting accommodation for the 51 children to ensure they are properly rehabilitated.
The chess coach added that initial efforts to get the children an accommodation proved abortive.
“Things got extremely complex as one problem lingered- The kids were still living under the bridge and we didn’t have an accommodation plan for them that was sustainable,” he wrote.
Onakoya said some persons also attempted to turn the hoodlums (area boys) under the bridge that were supporting the initiative against them.
“Some Nigerians were calling the Area Boys that volunteered with us and tried to get them to turn against us because we were ‘using them to make money,” he added.
He said during his team’s quest to address the accommodation issue, one of the boys fell off the bridge and broke his leg while trying to escape from task force officials at the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) terminal in Oshodi.
According to him, the boy went for surgery and was later taken to the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Igbobi, Lagos where he spent two months.
“Things got worse… One of the boys, in an attempt to escape Task force officers at the BRT terminal, fell off the bridge and broke his leg. We had to take him to the hospital and paid for his surgery. He spent the next two months recovering at Igbobi. We visited him every day,” he added.
Onakoya said the challenges facing children living under the bridge informed his team’s decision to ensure they get accommodation for them.
“The reality of children living under bridge is a very dark one. We had cases of rape, boys being molested by thugs, child trafficking and children being lured by strangers and used for money ritual. Their vulnerability made them easy prey as no one was going to look for them,” he said.
Onakoya said help eventually came when Child Lifeline, a non-profit organization dedicated to caring for street children, reached out to them.
According to him, the organisation owned a facility that could accommodate 19 boys while the remaining children were reunited with their families and empowered with laptops to continue their coding lessons.
Onakoyoa also said some of the kids were enrolled in schools to further their education.
Below is his thread:
After the oshodi underbridge chess tournament happened, something changed…
A new narrative was birthed which ignited hope in the hearts of so many people around the world.
For the first time in history, we all became Area boys for the sake of those who have been marginalized.— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Dignitaries came from around the globe to visit oshodi , not because it was another sad story of homeless poor children living in poverty, but for the incredible potential that was revealed through the gift of chess.
Everyone started to believe in the power of their dreams.— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
But unlike the movies, it wasn't just a 2 hour fairy tale with a happy ending. Things got extremely complex as one problem lingered- The kids were still living under the bridge and we didn't have an accommodation plan for them that was sustainable.
— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
We wrote to several institutions, shelter homes and orphanages but none of them were willing to take them in as they were mostly at full capacity and a few said they needed to do paperwork and home tracing which was going to take months to conclude.
— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
We didn't have all that time and we were under a lot of pressure to come up with a plan. The news was all over the internet.
Some Nigerians were calling the Area Boys that volunteered with us and tried to get them to turn against us because we were "using them to make money"— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
That didn't work as the Area Boys were loyal to us because we had formed a genuine bond with them and they trusted me.
We continued engaging the children on a weekly basis with chess, Tech and mental maths lessons with no end in sight.— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Chess in slums is a non profit that uses chess as a framework to give children in impoverished communities access to quality education, but we didn't have a hostel facility to house the children. It was the first time we were doing a project of this nature.
— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Now, a lot of organizations have tried in the past to help street children but most of them always ended back up on the streets because there was no deliberate effort to follow up on their progress.
We could have taken the easy way out but we knew it was not the right thing to do— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Things got worse…
One of the boys, in an attempt to escape Task force officers at the BRT terminal, fell off the bridge and broke his leg.
We had to take him to the hospital and paid for his surgery. He spent the next two months recovering at igbobi.
We visited him everyday.. pic.twitter.com/AHCJBbj9gG— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
The reality of children living under bridge is a very dark one. We had cases of rape, boys being molested by thugs, child trafficking and children being lured by strangers and used for money ritual.
Their vulnerability made them easy prey as no one was going to look for them.— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
It didn't matter anymore to me if Evra visited oshodi or the Canadian embassy, it had become priority to get the children away from there.
We rented out serviced apartments for some of the boys that had started taking coding classes with @kidsthatcodeNG .— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
We had to leave everything to go live with the boys and spend quality time with them during their rehabilitation process.
We did this for two months. pic.twitter.com/OtxjBcBp6r— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Renting an apartment and staying with them for 2 months wasn't a great long term plan, but it helped us achieve something that was critical to the success of this project.
They found true conviction during this period and finally realized that their mind was their greatest asset
— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
For the first time, they told us they wanted to go back home and never return to oshodi underbridge.
I was elated!
We had to travel all the way to Ibadan, Ekiti, Osun, Abeokuta etc to meet their families and seek consent from the ones that still had parents.— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
We finally got a call from Child life line, a non-profit organization dedicated to caring for street children. They had a facility that could take 19 boys.
This was the best news I had heard all year!
We got them in a bus and took them to their new home😊 pic.twitter.com/rKGHuEd64P— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
The 10 boys who participated in the coding class were re-connected with their families and we also assigned them mentors in their different locations so they don't relapse.
We have mapped out a one year financial plan to pay for their vocational traning and education. pic.twitter.com/ymH0Ze7SKe— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Remember Junior, the orphan boy with the voice of an Angel that was involved in a terrible bus accident, we finally reconnected him with his family in ilorin and assigned him a mentor- Professor Ogunade. pic.twitter.com/vX9fQ1pdLw
— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
We re-connected more children with their families and empowered them with Laptops to enable them continue their Chess and coding lessons thanks to @Ingressive4Good . pic.twitter.com/1N0WsHQtLD
— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
Malik has now been enrolled in a private school and lives with one of our volunteers.
He's doing exceptionally well too😊 pic.twitter.com/YTKosRhSjb— chessinslums.eth (@Tunde_OD) May 18, 2022
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