Back to Nigeria

My recent trip to Nigeria was one that I had been eagerly anticipating for a few months. In my first few years with Hands, I had the privilege of visiting once or even twice a year. But the past couple of years, for many reasons, the timing hasn’t worked for me to get there. The last time I was in Nigeria was October 2013 when Morgan and I travelled to Nigeria together. As soon as I landed in Nigeria, it was like coming to another home again. Even though your senses get assaulted as soon as you land, it definitely felt very comforting to me to be coming back to a place I think of so often. The traffic is loud, the smell of car fumes is so strong and there are people everywhere! All this being said, it always such a blessing to be among people that have a special place in my heart. 

Our Service Centre office is also
the place we stay in Nigeria

For many of our Service Centres (SCs) or local offices across Africa this year, we are really pushing to support them better by having a member of an RST (regional support team) for longer periods of time. Lagos SC in Nigeria is no different despite it being thousands of kilometres away from the Nigeria support team here in South Africa. In this last trip, I arrived in Lagos to meet Jackie (one of our Kenyan volunteers). One of the primary reasons for me going to Nigeria for this trip was to spend time training our new bookkeeper, Vivian. She is a young woman with lots of potential. Many of my days in Nigeria were spent in the office training her in our financial procedures and processes. But I also had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in our communities. 

We work in two communities in Nigeria, one in Lagos and one in another town called Ibadan, about 3 hours away. In Lagos, our community, Ilaje, is very urban and a slum area, which is a huge contrast to many of our other communities across Africa. Our other community, Apatuku, is by contrast to Ilaje, much more rural. 

Left to right: Matthew (a teacher in Apatuku CBO),
myself, Efe (Toyin's daughter), Toyin, Jackie

Our trip to Ibadan included Jackie, myself and Toyin. Toyin is our current bookkeeper in Nigeria and transitioning into becoming our SC coordinator. She has been with us since 2009. As with many Nigerians, she has a very determined and unwavering personality. One of my highlights of this trip was to see how much she has grown over the past year. She has taken on a new leadership of this team and wants to see our work in Nigeria expand in so many ways this year. And we are committed to standing alongside her as she strives for that. Our journey to Ibadan began with a car ride on a road which is definitely one of the scariest in Africa! Due to the amount of traffic in Nigeria, drivers are used to driving very close to each other. This is bad enough in city traffic where you are going relatively slowly, but when on the motorway going 100 kph (60 mph) it is nerve-racking. Many prayers have been prayed on this road. Thankfully we made it there and back without incident. Our time in Ibadan was very special. I got to reconnect with kids who I had met a few years ago and meet some new kids. 

On our second day in Apatuku, we were able to do some Holy Home Visits. As we walked through the community, it was very quiet. I think it was made even quieter by the fact we had just come from the bustling city of Lagos a day earlier. On one of our visits, we met a young boy named Joseph. Joseph, who is 12 years old, had lived with his grandmother from birth. His mum and dad realised they could not bring him and his brothers up on the income they had so Joseph's grandmother stepped in to take care of him. Joseph's brother now also lives them after their parents’ situation got even worse because their dad got sick and their only source of income dried up. He now lives with his brother and grandmother. To earn some kind of income, Joseph's grandmother sells maize meal with corn but each one only sells for N10 (3p or $0.06) each. The Care Workers at Apatuku CBO have helped and encouraged Joseph to keep attending school and continue learning. Now, he loves learning and wants to keep on studying and work hard to eventually become a doctor. He will soon be taking the exams to get into secondary school and feels ready. At the end of our visit Joseph shared to us “I am confident that I can get 100% by God's grace”. This is a huge testimony to what God can do through people who are willing to put up their hand and say I will do what it takes to walk with those who have no voice. Care Workers, like Elijah, are able to visit children like Joseph, encourage them and being a parental figure in their lives. 

Ilaje Care Workers and teachers praising
God for his faithfulness

A few days after returning from Ibadan, our team travelled to our other community, Ilaje. As I said earlier, this community is very urban and in a slum of Lagos. In this community, we have a great community school which caters for vulnerable children for nursery classes and primary classes. The group of teachers and Care Workers serving in the Community Based Organisation(CBO)are incredible. They are some of the most dedicated volunteers I have ever met. One of our teachers there, Mrs Joseph, has taken in vulnerable children from the community and makes sure each of them is at school every day. If she sees one even just one of them is not attending for a few days in a row, she goes to visit that child and makes sure they are ok. This is the sign of a true Care Worker. As we were sitting with the Care Workers and teachers they shared a story with us of one of the children who was assessed and started receiving care in January. Her name is Sarah and she is one of 5 siblings. Sarah and her family used to live in another state of Nigeria but last year her father left the family for another woman, a common situation in that particular state of Nigeria. As is the custom, the mother and children moved to the community of Ilaje. Over a few months last year, the mother grew sicker and sicker. At this stage the Care Workers in Ilaje were not aware of this family. Unfortunately the family did not have enough money to get the mother to hospital and she passed away in December. By the end, she was very sick and she actually died in the house they were living in. The family’s neighbour heard about this and tried to phone the father. He did not really want any part of their lives but he suggested that the church could help. Unfortunately, when the mother was sick it meant they could not get to church and the elders of the church decided that because the family had not attended the church in a while, the church couldn’t help. This meant the mother had a government funeral. The kids were then left with no mother (having watched their mother die) and no-one to look after them as they lived far from relatives. A groups of ladies in the community came together, but the only way they could help these 5 children was to care for some of them each, meaning that the siblings could not all live together. Sarah, who is 14 years old and in grade 5 and her young brother Abraham were taken in by a lady named Angie, who already has 6 children of her own. She knew the struggles of the family and also knew there was a place in the community where vulnerable children can revceive hope. Angie introduced Sarah and Abraham to Mrs Michaels, one of the Care Workers in Ilaje. Both Sarah and Abraham now attend Ilaje school. The trauma they have been through is enormous but we pray that through the Care Workers in Ilaje, they are able to be with other children, play games, receive a hot meal every day and receive parental love and support. 

As I reflect on my trip to Nigeria, I am constantly reminded of the dedication of our Care Workers who give absolutely everything they have to care for the most vulnerable children in Africa. It gives me an increased motivation to know that the numbers I work on most days are helping to support Care Workers like Mrs Joseph care for children like Sarah and Joseph. 

- T