Why SharingLife Was Created

…and why we must create mentorship programmes for disadvantaged children

This reality presents a desperate problem, because environmental influences are a major factor in the psycho-social development of children. All things being, therefore, we are bringing up a great number of Nigerian children to become poor, truant, and non-ambitious.

We cannot solve this problem by pulling every child out of their communities. This is impossible, and even if it is not, it is unsustainable. One way we can create a solution is to create a condition in which these children can thrive despite their environment. Most children, and youths, in low-income communities are searching for the ideal path to follow; they are asking curious questions, and desperately searching for answers. They are, at this point in their lives, at a heightened awareness of the possibilities life holds for them. They are naïve, impressionable, teachable. That is why the answers they get to their curious questions will shape their worldviews, and may go on to define them for most of their lives.

But, why leave the future of the children to a game of chance?

Surely, we can do something at that critical point where they recognize the flaw in their environments; when they see that life holds much more for them beyond the truancy of their own environments. Surely, we can answer their questions before they give in to the tricks and treacheries of ignorant ways. Surely, we can show these children a path to follow, one that has been blazed many times by people like them, from background like theirs.

This is why SharingLife was created — it is a reply to these questions.

SharingLife is a community of young people who are passionate about creating a change in our national consciousness and transforming local communities. SharingLife is a community of people courageous enough to share their lives with a disadvantaged child and empower her with the examples, knowledge, and tools to thrive and create meaning and sustenance for herself out of a complex world.

I have seen the power of mentorship and the exponential growth it causes in the lives of children from the poorest backgrounds. It creates hope. This hope brings forth the will to fight for a vision of tomorrow. Mentors become the Northern star for the children, even as they live in communities marked by poverty, truancy, and low achievement.

This is why SharingLife was created.

By Henry Anumudu

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