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16.01.2025 Featured 1,182 Children Enrolled in School, 125,074 Meals Served — The Destiny Trust’s 2024 Impact Report

Published 16th Jan, 2025

By Tola Owoyele

Through the odds, your kindness enabled us to sustain, deepen and grow our current interventions. It has truly been a year of remarkable growth and impact. For every child educated, fed, sheltered, empowered or cared for, and for all the new pathways we have created for future, exponential and sustainable impact, we owe you a profound debt of gratitude.

Those were the words of Abimbola Ojenike, co-founder of The Destiny Trust, in an impact report for 2024. The Destiny Trust is an organisation that takes the well-being, education and empowerment of homeless children and other classes of young people in disadvantaged circumstances as its priority.

So far, and despite prevailing harsh economic conditions, The Destiny Trust has continued to meet the needs of disadvantaged children by focusing on the goal of using education and groundbreaking technology projects as a means of tangible empowerment.

For 12 years, the foundation has also continued to run an extensive care programme which guarantees shelter, food, protection and all basic needs to categories of children who need a safe and stable home environment to benefit from the transformative potential of education.

READ ALSO: Destiny Trust Foundation @ 10. The Woman Who Gave Up Her Home for Street Kids — and Other Stories

2024 AT A GLANCE

Children at The Destiny Trust

In 2024, the foundation was able to enrol 1,182 children in school. Under this initiative, out-of-school children were also able to return to school. This was made possible through the foundation’s School Enrollment and Back-to-School Drive which were carried out in four Nigerian states.

During the year in review, 125,074 meals were served to children in The Destiny Trust homes, resettlement homes and school feeding programmes.

Five hundred children were empowered at Kids Innovation Africa, a Destiny Trust initiative that equips underrepresented children with technology and arts skills.

Fifty-nine older children were either given accelerated basic education or education remedial support.

In a riverine community in Lagos, 275 children were provided with a multimedia learning space, facilitating access to quality learning.

Thirty youths were awarded scholarships for their university education. Beneficiaries in this category were all first-generation graduates in their families.

The Destiny Trust also established a vocational skills centre with the capacity to train 100 children annually.

Ninety-two children were provided with shelter under residential care, family care and other alternative care plans.

The organisation also placed 155 children on a scholarship or admitted them into its tuition-free schools.

Six hundred and twenty beneficiaries enjoyed support projects in adopted schools.

Eleven women were empowered with skills and employed. This was done to create a means of livelihood for them so that they could support their children.

The Destiny Trust also added a 30-bed residential facility to its residential care capacity, putting it in a position to shelter 120 persons at once.

READ ALSO: UNVEILED: Destiny Trust’s Bridge Learning Centre for Over-aged Out-of-School Children

ACCELERATED EDUCATION FOR OLDER OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN

Ajoke

Since the establishment of The Destiny Trust’s Bridge Learning Centre three years ago, it has been found that older out-of-school children can complete basic education within three years.

Both the data and the inspiring story of 16-year-old Ajoke demonstrate the impact of the organisation’s accelerated education programme.

Ajoke, who had never been to school is now excelling at the Bridge Learning Centre. She is presently outpacing some of her peers who have had a prior learning experience and is on track for a secondary school enrolment.

READ ALSO: The Destiny Trust Foundation @ 10. One Decade of Giving Hope to Street Kids

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The Destiny Trust recorded 75 per cent average school retention for the children who were enrolled or supported to go back to school in slums and urban settlements between 2021 and 2024. A record 66 per cent of the children also completed basic education and transited to secondary school.

More importantly, The Destiny Trust learnt within the period that lack of stable homes remained a major challenge in planning education for a larger demography of out-of-school children.

To make remarkable progress in this regard, Nigeria needs more than schools to educate out-of-school children. The country needs safe and stable communities that include the urban poor as well as structured school-based humanitarian services for underserved children.

READ ALSO: Destiny Trust Offers ‘New Family’ to 17-Year-Old Abducted by Bandits

GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND TO HELP WITH SCHOOL SUPPLIES

Children in Nigeria’s Northeastern Region

In 2024, The Destiny Trust took its empowerment campaign to the northeastern states of Adamawa and Taraba, reaching 1,182 children.

Despite prevailing incidences of conflict and terrorism that have consistently plagued the region and the dangerous terrain that warranted travelling on water and uneven landscapes, the organisation reached the children to deliver school supplies and — most importantly — hope to them.

The campaign was just another demonstration of The Destiny Trust’s determination to ensure that no matter the barriers, challenges and costs, education must reach every child.

The Destiny Trust’s Back-to-School Support Data.

For school enrolment and back-to-school support alone, The Destiny Trust helped 485 children secure access to education in Lagos. In Oyo, Adamawa and Taraba, 246, 255 and 196 children benefitted from the same back-to-school support programme respectively.

READ ALSO: Mobile App to Rescue Kidnap Victims Features at I4G, Destiny Trust’s Training for 120 Kids

PROGRESS REPORT OF CHILDREN UNDER THE DESTINY TRUST’S CARE AND SUPPORT

One of The Destiny Trust’s Learning Centres

In 2024, 75 per cent of children under The Destiny Trust’s care achieved above-average ratings in all school examinations, emerging with results and performances that were at par with those of their peers from regular home settings.

The impact report showed that 99 per cent of children and youths reintegrated into families or transitioned to supported independent living demonstrated resilience and adaptability outside managed care settings.

The report also showed that 100 per cent of the children who were under residential care, and who sat for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) passed with five credits including English and Mathematics. Forty-five per cent of the children also obtained at least five distinctions in their results.

Ninety-nine per cent of the children whom The Destiny Trust either removed from the streets or were referred by the family court for care and supervision were successfully rehabilitated. The children have settled into residential care and are showing promising readiness for future family reintegration.

READ ALSO: Biobag Designer Wins The Destiny Trust’s 2024 Kids Innovation Challenge

WOMEN INCLUSION

The Destiny Trust’s Women Empowerment Initiative

Beyond nurturing every child’s potential, The Destiny Trust has also adopted tailored approaches to build resilient households where children can thrive.

It is for this reason that the organisation also focuses on women’s development and empowerment.

Women are central to The Destiny Trust’s vision as they often serve as the foundation of family stability and growth. Time and again, women empowerment initiatives have also created positive ripple effects, enabling households to better protect, nurture and provide for their children.

In 2024, The Destiny Trust embraced a transformative solution to address the rising costs of school supplies. In the process, the organisation established a cottage school factory, training disadvantaged women and teenagers in its care to produce school bags.

The women made over 1,000 bags for the back-to-school drives across several states. By producing locally, the cost of putting a child through school was halved while the women responsible for the production were also empowered by earning incomes they could use in supporting their families and other children in need.

READ ALSO: NOW OPEN: The Destiny Trust’s Multimedia Learning Space for Disadvantaged Children

Through the initiative called Project Enable, the organisation aims to collaborate with more community-based trade associations in the future to facilitate access to finance and skills acquisition for more women. This would further equip them with the tools they need to build sustainable livelihoods.

PRIORITY SDGs

The Destiny Trust’s mission to transform the lives of vulnerable children hinges on four key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, and quality education.

Education made up a greater part of the plan as it took 67.4 per cent of the organisation’s intervention programmes in 2024.

It also underscored The Destiny Trust’s commitment to address the education crisis in the country and empower the next generation.

READ ALSO: From Aspiring ‘Yahoo Boys’ Building Drones, The Destiny Trust Is Raising Kid Innovators

EXPENDITURE

2024 Outflow Chart

In terms of finance, 41.3 per cent of all the donations received in 2024 from individuals and corporate bodies was spent on education, 34.7 per cent was spent on care and 12.4 per cent was spent on empowerment.

Ten per cent of the donations was spent on personnel while 1.5 per cent was spent on administrative costs.

READ ALSO: 515 Children Off the Streets, 100,375 Meals Served — The Destiny Trust’s 2022 Impact Report

CO-FOUNDER’S NOTE

Abimbola Ojenike, Co-founder, The Destiny Trust

”As we reflect on the year 2024, we are once more reminded of the extraordinary power of compassion in uncertain times,” Ojenike stated in his appreciation note.

”It bears repeating that every year comes with its peculiar constraints, but 2024 tested our resolve perhaps more than any other year in our over 12 years of working with children.

”As we shared in our mid-year report, it is in tough times that our common humanity calls on us to hold out a lifeline for those in need. We are deeply grateful to you our friends and partners for your kindness and commitment to the children amidst the difficulties of the year.

”Through the odds, your kindness enabled us to sustain, deepen and grow our current interventions. It has truly been a year of remarkable growth and impact.

”For every child educated, fed, sheltered, empowered or cared for, and for all the new pathways we have created for future, exponential and sustainable impact, we owe you a profound debt of gratitude.”

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Published 16th Jan, 2025

By Tola Owoyele

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