Press Release
The Destiny Trust, a social intervention focusing on the care, education, rehabilitation and empowerment of homeless children is calling on people and businesses to support its work with children through a crowdfunding campaign tagged “1000HelpingHands”. The 1000HelpingHands Campaign is to enlist 1000 people who have a heart for less-privileged children to give N1,000 monthly for the next one year to assist the Trust to continue its work with children.
At the Destiny Trust, children who are either orphaned or are homeless and without any responsible guardian are admitted into a programme which provides shelter, daily feeding, healthcare, education and all the basic needs. At least 16 children per time receive this kind of support at the Trust’s residential learning and rehabilitation centre located at Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos. The Trust provides more than 1,800 meals monthly to resident children and other at-risk children who come in from its host community.
In addition to providing care to homeless children, the Trust runs an expansive education programme which caters to other poor children who cannot be accommodated at the Trust’s shelter but nonetheless require educational support. This involves preparing out-of-school children for schooling, school enrollment, after-school assistance and back-to-school support. The initial campaign in August 2014 had raised N627, 000 benefitting 100 children through supply of uniform and school kits.
On the fundraising, Campaign Manager, Bukky Shaba stated “we believe that ordinary people giving the little they can afford can make a major social impact. We can be the people that will halt the trend of child illiteracy, poverty and abuse. We have the chance to create a new future for some children who would become a menace to the society if we don’t act. It will be our joy to do this even in uncertain economic times because that is when they need will need us even more”.
The proceeds of the crowdfunding is intended for the Trust’s spending over a one-year period to provide more than 21,600 meals, health care, rent of the shelter for street children, enrolment/back-to-school support to 1000 children and support to at least one under-resourced schools attended by children in target communities.
The Trust We invite people to join us to sign up and spread the cause as we build a community of people making a big difference with little.
Donations are received through a safe and convenient online payment platform following the link https://paystack.com/pay/destinytrust or by direct transfer or cash payment the Trust’s account: The Destiny Trust Projects, GT Bank Plc, 0209963873.
About The Destiny Trust
The Destiny Trust is committed to providing care, education, empowerment and the development needs of children and households within vulnerable groups. We come through for them in areas of greatest need including providing shelter, food, education, guidance, health care, mentoring and other child support services. Our motivation is the ultimate possibility to transform the life of one child who would be a risk to the society if we do not take this action.
We commenced our activities on August 11, 2012 with an initiative tagged “Kuramo Intervention Project”. The Kuramo Intervention Project was a specific intervention targeted at providing education, healthcare, food, shelter and guidance to homeless children at Kuramo Beach and Bar Beach. Although a fun hide-out, the relatively subdued story about some of the beaches on the Atlantic is that they are also haven to squatters, criminals, commercial sex workers and drug addicts. The Kuramo shoreline was an unpleasant metaphor for poverty and social inequity. At the time, scores of homeless children who have fled home or have become orphaned lived on the beachfront begging, hawking, smoking, drinking, doing illicit drugs and some young girls are used for commercial sex work. In August 2012, an ocean surge swept off about 16 people, including some homeless children who live on the Kuramo shoreline. A significant number of these children were displaced from the Kuramo/Bar Beach shoreline and have relocated to other slums along the coastline. They remain as exposed, perhaps even more exposed in the new environments.
Our initial intervention was to provide food and interim relief to children and families at Kuramo/Bar Beach. We organized Soup Kitchens and community outreaches. This form of outreach was necessary for close interaction with street children in order to understand their condition and how we can help. We were later engaged in helping children to retrace and reunite with their families. We also assisted some homeless families to resettle from the beach to decent accommodations provided by the Trust while we sponsored the education of children and seek means of financial empowerment for their families. The success of the intervention lies in the story of lives that have been transformed from the destitution of life on the beachfront.
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