CHRISTMAS PARTY FOR ALMAJIRI BOYS
TACF in furtherance of its campaign for the Almajiri Boy Project, held a Christmas party for them in the city of Abuja, Nigeria.
The TACF Team had so much fun with the boys.
ALMAJIRI BOY PROJECT SEPT 2024
Nigeria is Africa’s largest country by population, with over 200 million people. Almost halt, about 46% are under 15. By UNICEF statistics, about 10.2 million to 20 million are out of school, meaning that about one in three children in Nigeria is out of school,
This comes with horrific implications. These children are recruited as bandits into insurgency and terrorrist groups like Boko Haram, which has terrorrised Northern Nigeria for more than 20 years. They are called Almajiri children. Almajiri literally means a youth (usually male), who leaves his parent’s home to be learned in Qur’anic education.
However, beyond the original intention of the scheme, these boys roam the streets without parental guidance, sometimes homeless, with tattered clothes and begging bowls scavenging for food. Their hallmark is their big bowls with which they beg for food. They become targets for recruitment by terrorrist groups, arming them with dangeraous weapons and turning them into suicide bombers!
At TACF, we came up with a project called The Almajiri Project, where these boys are our focus. We feed them, make them feel loved and seek to give them a sense of belonging to civil society.
We held this event for them sometime in September 2024 where we fraternised with them, fed them and motivated them.
This will be a continuous project.
WORLD MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY 2019
May 28 every year is set aside every year as a day to celebrate the uniqueness of women and girls, and to see to it that taboos and stigmas become a thing of the past. At TACF, we join other non-profit organisations, governments, civil society, organised public and private sector as well as millions of individuals, to increase awareness and ensure, especially among young girls in the rural areas of Nigeria, that they stay safe, clean and confident during their menstrual periods.
On this occasion, TACF took the campaign to girls in a public school in the city of Abuja, Nigeria, to commemorate the day.
TACF BACK-TO-SCHOOL-PROJECT 2018
In 2018, we had our BACK-TO-SCHOOL PROJECT for beneficiaries of our scholarship scheme. In attendance at the event marking the commencement of the project held in the premises of the Government Secondary School, Yangoji, a rural community in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Nigeria were officials of government (FCT Secondary Education Board), Community leaders, parents & guardians and the press.
The beneficiaries were given back-to-school kits and books, while their levies were paid.
Some of the beneficiaries have made themselves, their families and Foundation proud. While Mary Adeniyi is now a registered Nurse, Aisha is now a Community Health Worker, and happily married.
TACF SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME 2018
TACF heeded the cry of indigent students of the Junior Secondary School and Government Secondary School, Yangoji, 2 schools located in a rural community in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Nigeria.
Their fees and levies were paid and many of them who had dropped out of school either because they could not afford payment or lacked books and kits for school, resumed happily back.
TACF is committed to reducing the staggering statistics of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
THE ADEKUNLE CHILD FOUNDATION MARKS CHILDREN’S DAY
THE ADEKUNLE CHILD FOUNDATION MARKS CHILDREN’S DAY
The Adekunle Child Foundation (TACF), a non-govenmental organisation visited the Vine Heritage Home in Kuje, Abuja on the 27th of May to celebrate the International Children’s Day with the home. TACF is based in Abuja.
Vine Heritage Homes is a rescue home in the Federal Capital Territory that serves as a refuge for rescued children put on the death row as a result of harmful cultural practices in several villages in the FCT. These include twins, triplets, albinos, children born with disability etc.
The proprietors of the Home, Pastor and Dr. Mrs Sola Stevens who received the TACF yeam have been rescuing children in the home for about 2 decades.
The TACF team brought gifts for the children including books, school bags and other items, with so much to eat and drink. Addressing the children, the Founder of The Adekunle Child Foundation, Mr. Femi Adekunle admonished the children to be of good behaviour while stressing the significance of Children’s Day.
There was so much fun as the children played, danced and engaged in lots of games.
BIZARRE! ABUJA COMMUNITIES WHERE TWINS, BABIES ARE KILLED
BIZARRE! ABUJA COMMUNITIES WHERE TWINS, BABIES ARE KILLED
It’s unlike me to do long write-ups on social media. I know how ineffective it is however beautiful your message is. But, kindly bear with me on this occasion and be patient to read through. This is a story that will melt the stoniest of hearts.
Sometime early in the year, I was gisting with Buchi and he mentioned to me something bizarre and unbelievable. Buchi by the way is one of my sons and a youth leader, passionate about anything he does. He told me that there is a village in the city where they kill new-born twins. My ears tingled as though there was a piercing inside my eardrums. It was like a bombshell, I couldn’t believe it. This is Abuja, the FCT, seat of the government of Nigeria. “I am serious daddy”, he said, “we were there on evangelism from campus”. I lost my peace and I decided I was going to visit. Unfortunately, this couldn’t materialise as a result of Covid-19. I therefore decided to visit on my birthday, again, there were #endsars protests everywhere. Against all odds, I eventually did with some of the indefatigable members of The Adekunle Child Foundation (TACF) team.
As we drove into the interiors of Kuje, a suburb of the FCT, made famous more for the prison the community hosts, but host also to Vine Heritage Homes , I kept thinking……
Meanwhile, I had over the phone spoken to Dr. Mrs. Stevens, university don who with her husband have been doing an amazing work, unsung, in the FCT of rescuing endangered, innocent babies. The first question I asked her was, “is this true”? She confirmed it is. So I kept thinking: after almost a century and a half that a Scottish missionary had dedicated her life to eradication of the killing of twins among the Efik in the South-East of Nigeria, is this happening in today’s Nigeria, the federal capital? But yes, it is, and this is 2020, 21st Century and it’s no fairy tale. I am privileged to have visited the epitaph of the legendary Mary Slessor in Duke Town, Calabar where she was buried. This fact, in addition to the fact that I am a father of twins, stressfully explains the emotions that engulfed me.
We met the rugged Pastor Sola Stevens who is the father of the home. His story was chilling as I fought back tears. His resilience and commitment to purpose is such as I hardly ever have seen. The story started in 1996 when his fiancée then, now his wife, was posted to a rural community in the FCT as a missionary. That was when she discovered the bizarre practice of human sacrifice of babies in the community. Their Mission posted Pastor Sola, then also a bachelor, to provide support. This was how they discovered that her initial discovery was only a tip of the iceberg for more horrid, frightful discoveries that were to be made – they discovered 68 other neighbouring communities with similar practice. Since then, the couple have been stuck in the area, sold out and sacrificed to the cause they have been divinely mandated to pursue.
Vine Heritage Homes is not just an orphanage, it is much more. Whilst we thought that only twins were being rescued, it is a haven for babies whose only ‘sin’ was to have been born unique. It is a refuge for twins, triplets, albinos, babies whose upper canines grew first, babies with some form of deformity including polio, and even babies whose mothers died while breastfeeding. Such babies were either fed with poisonous herbal roots, left in the wild to starve to death or buried alive with the mother. In those days when vehicles were scarce in those rural areas, Pastor Sola would travel 35 km on foot to and fro each trip, on rescue missions, sometimes on a daily basis. The children, all of who are sons and daughters of the Stevens, number over 120 and still counting. Though through their efforts they have been able to significantly reduce these practices, the newest member of the family is just 4 months old! Now in the home, is a school.
The Stevens have become a living sacrifice. They are an epitome of humanity, beacons of hope for babies whom demonic traditions of men and satanic heathen cultures have decreed have no reason to live. They are fulfilling the mandate of the Creator over these children.
The home needs support. TACF in its own little way sowed a seed, but we feel we can do more. In the event that your heart is touched to reach out to the home and these lovely children, kindly reach me through an inbox message or through WhatsApp 08055103512. Children’s clothes, shoes etc are welcome.
‘Femi Adekunle © 2020
TACF SAYS NO TO RAPE
TACF SAYS NO TO RAPE
The screaming news feature on May 7, 2017 in The Punch looked incredibly bizarre and unbelievable: “Aisha Buhari, Sanusi visit raped 6-month old baby in Kano”, it read. Reading through, it was sadly real! A 6-month old baby had been savagely brutalized by a maniacally possessed lunatic.
A lot of unanswered questions raced through one’s mind. How indecently was this baby dressed? Was it the diapers wrapped round her, or her bib that were so sexy as to seduce a grown-up man? What kind of obscenity could a pristine 6-month old baby have displayed that would warrant an adult to lay his cursed, lecherous fingers on her?
We say this because it has become fashionable to provide nonsensical alibis for rapists, one that blames the victim for “indecent dressing” and/or “unwarranted seduction”. It is tantamount to excusing a burglar because the door was not properly locked. For such a depraved criminal in The Punch news feature, even a life imprisonment is a slap on the wrist – whether he is insane or balanced, such a man does not deserve to live.
While it is good to let ladies know how to avoid being raped, men should be told to embrace the virtue of responsibility. Ladies are to protected and not violated. For every girl, every woman raped, the entire nation is raped.
We demand justice for Vera Uwa Omozuwa.
TACF CELEBRATES WOMANHOOD
TACF CELEBRATES WOMANHOOD
Womanhood is a gift from God to man. And the world took time out to celebrate women. To all women out there as the world remembers you, a happy International Women’s Day. TACF specially celebrates its women. Amazons who tirelessly give to humanity.
TACF WINS AWARD FROM PwC
TACF WINS AWARD FROM PwC
Messrs PricewaterhouseCoopers, leading multinational audit and consulting firm recently as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), made a cash donation of N1m to The Adekunle Child Foundation (TACF) in recognition of its activities towards alleviating the plight of vulnerable children. On the 14th of December, 2019, PwC organised an event tagged the PwC 5-for-5 Charity Walk at which the presentation was made. The event took place simultaneously in 2 locations – Lagos and Abuja. The event was given coverage by the press. https://www.thisdaylive.com/…/19/pwc-empowers-five-ngos/
TACF is full of gratitude to the Management and Staff of PwC. The cash award will go a long way in enabling TACF scale up its activities and impact more women and children. The Lagos and Abuja events were captured in colorful pictures by the Press Crew of TACF.
