OUR STORY

OUR STORY

In 2005, Tolulope sangosanya started an after school club for kids in a slum area built on trash in rural Lagos. This slum was later named "DUSTBIN ESTATE" by the kids of the community; it is located in the Ajegunle area in Lagos state. The idea to start the after school club stemmed from a national fact in Nigeria; many children in public primary and secondary schools can neither read nor write. Everyone knows of the makoko slum but very little is known about the DUSTBIN ESTATE slum where hundreds of thousands of children inhabitable conditions and are susceptible to high Malaria and Diarrhea rates and other health challenges. These challenges are direct implications of health and welfare challenges; a problem which is a national issue in Nigeria.
These problems are even more common in rural areas, particularly in the slum areas. The after-school club was meant to be about literacy improvement for poor children, however, other factors which affect literacy became apparent and as such shaped the framework of our programs and projects. Tolu, along with others began the difficult process to rebuild this slum with many of its projects and boast access to education for poor children of DUSTBIN ESTATE.
These process uncovered the challenges of lack of nutrition, health challenges, access to sanitation and clean water. We discovered that, in a majority of these cases, a child had contracted one of the many illnesses caused by lack of food, access to clean water and sanitation had a direct impact on school attendance. Through further research we have begun to understand that unsafe water effects more than just education. Health concerns place a disproportionate amount of pressure on a government whose resources are already limited when dealing with such problems. If development is about people, and it is, then Nigeria can no longer afford to overlook the welfare of our society's poorest and most vulnerable children, as it will have a huge impact on our future as a nation.

OUR APPROACH

A LOCAL SOLUTION TO A GLOBAL PROBLEM

it is our mission to boast access to basic literacy among vulnerable children and to ensure that they are fit to gain access to nutrition, sanitation and clean water. We use feeding the children as a means to get them basic literacy at our center. We work with volunteer teachers some of them are from local private schools in the area. We also, try to involve the parents in the process to ensure continuity and sensitization of our intended goals. How do we succeed where others have tried and failed? Well the answer is simpler then you might think. We roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty! LOTS CHARITY model can be described as providing specific localize approach to the challenges of poor children. Our projects utilize local human resource, local labor and ingenuity and ownership is transferred to the communities upon completion.

OUR MISSION

we are not the average nonprofit; we are a lifetime partner for slum and rural community's development. With your help we can realize our dream of providing 100% coverage to communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Every goal taken starts with a single step and to date with help of our sponsors we have installed some water pumps and toilets in this community to positively change the lives of tens of thousands of people in the community, alongside, running our after-school club and feeding projects for vulnerable children in DUSTBIN ESTATE.

COMMUNITY BY COMMUNITY PROGRAM

Can focusing all of our efforts and resources in one specific community make a significant impact? We think so! A slum with an average of 3,400 families with a minimum of 6 members per family living in inhabitable conditions, making a difference here will have a great impact nationally. Our newest initiatives seeks to work with local authorities, partners and government agencies to provide a decent living conditions for these poor children. Our goal is to embark upon an affordable housing project, build more toilets and running clean waters, expand our feeding projects to accommodate more children and also, seeking health patterns for immunizations and other health services to be accessible for poor children in the community.