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In 2016, the U.S. agency for International Development funded a technology literacy program that targeted estimated number of 22,000 disadvantaged children.

Today, with the help of the local community, the American University of Nigeria has expanded this program to help marginalized and homeless children excluded from formal education.

Tonight, we talk about these programs with their leaders.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson, an innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

I'm with the vice president of administration at the American University of Nigeria.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me, Miss Angela.

I've heard so much about your.

Position right now as new vice president of administration.

You were in another position before, so please tell our audience your name, the position you were in and why education is so important.

Thank you very much.

My name is Daniel Okereke.

I'm the vice president.

Administration.

Before then, and for ten years, I was executive director, marketing and communications.

In that role, I was the university's principal coordinator for internal and external communication, media relations, public relations, marketing, parent relations, alumni relations, relations with other organizations that interface with the university, as we call them.

And I get our stakeholders, the investors, stakeholders, alumni, parents, investors, especially the regulatory authorities in Nigeria.

Ask us the National Universities Commission.

So I coordinated all of those relations, internal and external, especially internal communications, which is very important and vital for a young university of our type.

We are 20 years last year and we are making steady progress.

And you're making this wonderful progress.

But it's not just with the university itself, it's what you have done using media in the community.

So what happened in 2013.

2018?

I will refresh the exact words of former U.S. ambassador.

He commended this university.

I want to let you know that all successive U.S. ambassadors always come to our university because they appreciate what we are doing.

The difference American education is making in this part of the country.

This is a young country, a very young country, in the context that more than 40% of Nigeria's population is under the age of 30.

That makes us very young and growing country.

40% under the age of.

50.

Yes.

So this is that's a youth bulge.

Yes, yes, a youth bulge.

So what do you do with young people?

You educate them and you don't just educate them.

The type of education you give to them is very important.

And I will ultimately determine the quality of service they will render to their country.

The difference of this university from peer competitors, other universities in Nigeria is the liberal arts curriculum.

The American style liberal US curriculum.

Why is it important?

It is important because it is a model of education that prepares young people for the challenges.

Very peculiar challenges of a very ambitious developing country.

Nigeria is very ambitious, do not want wants to be better than the United States.

I don't want us to overtake China.

Nigeria has the population.

Nigeria has the dynamics.

Yes, and Nigerians are very globally inclined.

So Nigerians have huge ambition.

But we need an education that supports that ambition.

To American style liberal arts education is the best suited for Nigeria because it's empower students to challenge orthodox thinking in classes.

Students don't just receive knowledge, they challenge knowledge that matters.

But the question literature or the question class classroom materials, the question teachers position on issues, the challenge, everything that's supposed to ask questions and receive answers.

They're supposed to experiment.

That's supposed to be not just passive receivers of knowledge are those who regurgitate actually the active they are.

And it's an interactive form of knowledge.

So at the end, the product of American style liberal arts education are people are young people who are very confident in the education they have received.

They have understood because they have read across curriculum.

You come to study engineering, you understand economics, you understand sociologist.

So they become critical thinkers.

And there's one more important component, the American University of Nigeria gives to students, which is community service.

Community service for us isn't just volunteer work, it is where our students interact with the community and become solution provider as they understand problems of the community and come back to the classroom with solutions.

I mean, look at our area, look at our zone, look at our region.

We talk about.

That.

We are low in all the development in this is where are low in school enrollment.

We are low in health care delivery.

I am very sad to tell you that we have one of the highest mortality rates in among the six regions of Nigeria.

So just in this region, not the entire country, this region has high mortality.

Telling us is the most challenging.

Healthcare delivery is the most challenging, education is the most challenging.

Poverty indexes is the most challenging.

Security.

So how do we solve these problems?

We want to solve this problem.

This university does not just want to be every dollar in the one who produces knowledge and gives the findings of the knowledge served in a laboratory or in a laboratory.

No, our knowledge, our production of knowledge is specific to solving local problems.

So our students go into the communities to do community service.

Our students teach literacy classes.

Our students develop apps to teach local languages.

They develop local language to teach kids, vulnerable kids who who cannot have access to education.

You do not know this country has by Unesco, figures at least 40 million out-of-school children.

That's the population of Belgium.

Now Belgium is less than 14 million.

So this country has a huge out-of-school population.

How do we reach this population?

This university has developed means of reaching out-of-school children.

And I want you to talk about that because people that are watching this right now, they have no comprehension of students not being in school.

When you are of a certain age, you're in school.

I mean, how can you explain that to our viewers so they can understand the importance of working to get that those numbers are low?

There are a lot of reasons, such a cultural reasons, why a lot of kids are out of school, especially girls.

Girls that I say high incidence of, early marriage.

Kids are taken out of school because of poverty.

A lot of kids can't access school because of insecurity.

A lot of kids can't access school.

What is invested from 2013 to 2017, was to use technology to reach out of schools because we used radio and we had a program called Bella Tala is technology enhanced learning for all.

It was sponsored by the United States government through you said yes.

You said, give us the money.

And, we reached the first the pilot case, the pilot study was 22,000 kids who are using radios and tablets, who are using local language students.

Students of America in west of Nigeria developed apps in local languages.

And we reached the first.

The pilot study was 22,000 out-of-school kids.

All right.

We went further than that.

We have a program called Free Download Program Now, a free download program is a national model.

The rest of the country applauds and accepts and approaches this very creative solution to reaching out-of-school kids.

We started with girls who had a seed money of $15,000 donated by the Irish government.

So we did.

We started.

We brought together about 200 out-of-school kids, girls.

And we'll give them one meal per day.

And then they learned basic maths, they learned English, they learned personal hygiene.

But most importantly, and because of the peculiar circumstances of our situation, they get one good meal per day for those kids.

It could be the only meal for the day.

But when you now blend that learning with care, their personal welfare, the enthusiasm, the participation was enormous.

And several times U.S. ambassadors, U.S. diplomats come to be part of this program to promote, to motivate, to give words of encouragement to these kids and then feed on it.

Initially for guests.

Now for boys.

What is the finale program important?

Please, let's take the instance of boys.

These boys, excluded.

Now, if you go straight into the frustration, aggression, charity and social sciences, it says those that, deprived people who are outside who don't have hope, the, raw recruits for insurgency, they, there for the for the tag and they are there if there is any, insurgent who is preaching hope.

I'm preaching, an alternative ideology or hate against the government wants to divide the society, wants to promote extreme is a want to promote bigotry.

Where does where do they get the recruits is from excluded is from the uneducated, is from those who don't have hope, is from those the society have rejected this from those who do not have sense of employment, especially those who don't have education.

So when we captured these kids under our freedom IT program, we give them hope.

We give them education.

We give them a sense of belonging.

We include them.

They are no longer excluded.

They're not included them.

They become difficult to be recruited.

They become themselves.

Those who multiply knowledge.

They become promoters of knowledge.

So when you have when you begin to include those who are excluded, you are making progress.

That's what this university has done and achieved with the freedom IT program for boys and girls, for the girls.

When you educate girls, you make a lot of progress.

Angela.

Yes.

One way to make a lot of progress.

You will help the society to achieve a certain level of, a higher level of knowledge, a little knowledge from our evidence based learning.

Research in this group.

When when a woman has a certain basic education, his children, her children do not get education lower than what they want and get.

Take my word for that.

When a woman is educated up to a certain level, her kids will never get education lower than what their mother gets.

It doesn't work.

We can tell you that from this, our experience in this region.

So when you educate girls, society makes a lot of progress.

When you get girls, you lower bit rate.

But an important issue here is yes, when you educate girls, you increase their confidence.

You empower them, you empower them.

We empower.

They give them a skill.

And most importantly, you have an opportunity to them to produce children for the society that will be also empower that will also educated.

No woman allows her kids to be educated less than what she has received.

That is a perfect way to end our conversation.

Mr. Dan, thank you so much for talking about the education introducing the programs.

We are going to talk to the Director of Feed and Read in the next segment.

But most importantly, thank you for everything that you're doing for the American University of Nigeria so that this region can move forward.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

Waste to Wells started in 2012, and the idea of the program is how do we change the environment, protect it.

Well, what so importantly, we're dealing with how we empower women in our community.

This young ladies and women who are vulnerable pick up this plastic waste, wash them up and clean up, dry it and bring them into young and then turn it to beautiful products like this.

So we generate income from waste wells for the women, and we've generated over 50 million in cash, Nigerian money.

And then our goal is to see that these women clean up the environment at the same time have economic benefits.

And then social equity, where we have both the Christians and the Muslim come together to work together and, you know, to generate income to support their homes.

We have a particularly the name is CC, she's their leader.

She had done so much and she has just had a loan.

She's actually going to over 5 million naira in cash.

Just working from this plastic, which you also have pictures for kids and they're all in school and she pays their fees with this.

So, you know, help the women in so many ways.

Our students also involved at the American University of Nigeria teaching this women ideas how best they can make this product come out better with the dimensions and all that.

So this is one of the things that we have done so far.

I'm not just buying them for myself.

I'm also supporting the women who are making this.

They are putting in much, so much effort on this.

This is quite a admirable.

For us pastors is about giving back.

It's about service is about sacrifice, is about seeing those who are down.

Come on.

It's about giving people another opportunity.

One of the things the Bible says that you'll bless the works of our hands.

For us, this is an opportunity for you to work again.

When you for yourself.

I want to leave this legacy that we have been able to generate one.

We're saving the environment.

On the other hand, we're empowering our women.

And for me, it's a story to tell for generations.

And when we look back, we can look at how this product, how you picture the lives of women.

We're back to talk about American education.

Thank you so much for being here.

Before you tell us why you're here, tell our audience who you are in the position and the institute that you work for.

So my name is Elderly Man.

I come from the most terror, terror afflicted part of Nigeria, which is the Zamfara State, North-West Nigeria.

I think you heard about Kidnapings and all I have.

I have been home for three years because you can't.

It's not safe to go home and all informants are there telling the kidnapers you are not safe.

So it's sad moments for many of us who are from that part of the world.

But as reality.

I moved to America University in 2015 to start up the Ministry for development, and since then I've been here and happy to be here.

And your institute is actually named after the person that created the American University of Nigeria.

Can you talk a little bit about him?

Our audience would love to know about it.

So I took His Excellency.

I took a former Vice President of Nigeria is very passionate about development.

As for me, in my party, this phase of work is done.

However, I'm not going to go away.

If you appeal, if you think I'm going to, well, we forget about having fun himself as a vulnerable child and often actually complete.

Often he could see the benefit of helping others.

I think he's singular.

Moments that made him focus on that was being taught by Peace Corps volunteers in this village somewhere in Yola here.

And the fact to see the passion they had coming so far away from America, having not nobody with them, were very keen.

And he says they are always smiling.

They never seem to get angry.

So that went with him as he grew up and succeeded in life succeeded, educational.

You also succeeded, and so many from the university decided to do something that, got to pay back his community.

He could easily have put this university in Abuja or Lagos.

It should be by far more, much more successful.

But according to he brought it here because he wants development to be a guide to the government, to the people, so that we can see that is a calling.

Whether you are Christian and Muslim.

Development and supports is a calling everybody wants to do.

And he sees education as a way to achieve that.

Well, and I see that I see that on campus.

And so how does the Institute take part of that mission and move it forward?

Right.

So what we bring the initially when we came, the vision was to, use research, conduct research and items.

Environment of challenges, key challenges.

For example, in 2014, the Boko Haram incidence was very high.

There's a lot of, what do you call them?

Displaced.

Internally displaced Nigerians.

There's a lot of needs, food security.

And, but what he saw was that education.

So the children came with their parents and grandparents.

Many had lost their parents, but there's no school in the schools here where we're already saturated with large class sizes.

And that was our first project to find out.

How do we provide education to these, at that time, I would say about 45,000 children were recorded, us, internally displaced without school.

And we came up with a program right here in the studio where we developed a radio program with our students that was students demonstrating lessons on radio in in house, a language or language.

You scripting it out or recording it and sending it out to to the to the state radio station to broadcast.

We did our own funding for about nine months and USAID had about that.

Mr.. Daniel talked about that, yes.

Yeah.

So that was that was it does a very first project, obviously from his own pocket.

He was given money to support the displaced in terms of feeding and security, but that's not sustainable.

And we started writing proposals many donors are giving the money to governments.

But they were also fully challenged that the money is really not maybe not reaching the right people in the right numbers at the right time, with the right quality and quantity.

We were the very first university in Nigeria to to come up and say, we think we can do a better job to manage your money, provide quality will provide feedback, evidence.

And again, USAID was the first one to believe in us.

And, gave us a small grant under the feed the future is an American USAID global program for feeding people.

So we fed them.

But we also said as you feed them, we should teach them how to get back to their farms.

Most of Nigeria, northern Nigeria is subsistence farmers.

Everybody knows how to farm, but not everybody had to land because of the displacements that happened.

Okay, so first you need to get security for your family before you think about farming.

And we said no, we believe the the the food parcels we give are good.

But if you want to get the civil to start thinking of life after this, then we need to start getting them back to, to to the land, find farms for them that they continue to farm whenever they go back home.

They haven't lost the skills.

And again, the German government came to support us and the U.S. government continued.

So that's that's one of our huge project, which is call it livelihood.

Please talk more about livelihood.

Livelihood enhancement projects, the conflicts, like anywhere else.

The most affected are women and children, usually.

This is no different.

Of course, many men were killed and many were were injured.

So women took up responsibilities of looking after the family.

You recall that?

I'm not sure if you recall, was in Nigeria.

The Muslim north is the women stay home and and look for we use the word look for food right in the South is almost a partnership.

Do women also do men go to the farm and the not women really?

The Muslim?

Not at least rarely go to the farms.

It's a male driven culture of looking after her family.

Nothing wrong with what cultures.

And now with the conflicts.

Many women were widowed.

They didn't have a man to look after them and they have so many children.

So we have to change our mindset to say, you can actually, then press it and make it, in a sense, a very powerful agenda.

Women empowerment advocates started going out to the camps herself with some of our staff to preach to the women practically president.

So we focus on women empowerment, giving them inputs, hoes, cutlasses and seeds and fertilizers.

But following them to shed plots.

The government gave us some plots of land, so to give the displaced remember our displaced are from here.

So whatever land was given was not permanent.

It's just for them to to to have a plot that a compound vegetables many of them did vegetables because the government provided grains.

So they needed vegetables to supplement their meals.

And I got very, very successful.

So the UN, United Nations High Commissioner for refugees contracted us through Maliki to provide for the whole not is the three most affected states Borno, Adamawa.

You'll be there called besides the similar three most affected.

I mean the insurgency is getting lower with the challenge.

Are there also from a small pilot program?

Yola became a multi state program, fully funded by international donors that we do right across.

So what you're telling me is this is more than just research with a pilot program, what you're taking from that pilot program, you're implementing that back into the community so that the community can change its mindset of mostly the women impacted by the insurgency.

Mostly without without our own choice, 90% or more women.

We didn't we didn't get to choose the yes condition of the conflict.

Yes, makes the women so vulnerable, particularly younger adolescent girls, so vulnerable to to abuse.

That's what we saw in the camps, because food is suddenly a commodity to, to exchange for sex and so on and so forth.

And the UN discovered that so you need a partner that has a passion, but also has the mechanism to make sure that the stuff, do not, engage in that.

Now, we are a major education partner.

So if, what are the conflicts, you know, that, the research shows that about six out of ten Nigerians are for great cannot read.

Is this research that's pretty high.

Yeah.

That's this research evidence.

So there's a lot of people doing work Unicef you know school and that.

But we are a university.

I mean education is our business.

And we also have a primary school right across the road.

Yes.

So we know that in our school is a private school, we get the best of the best teachers because parents can pay by just next door is a normal government, a school that has lacked a lot of resources, facilities and so on.

So we see that we leave that evidence.

We see that clearly that if you don't have in the House who are insignificant in terms of the proportion will just continue to be a small number and the have nots will increase, making the insecurity even worse.

So we intervened in education.

And I was telling you about the radio program we did, which, you have no control on the reach of radio as far as it can go.

Anybody can listen.

So we planned for 20,000 displaced children, which with the radio sets, sitting in communities and listening.

But anybody who has a radio can listen.

So, we did trace our story.

We saw our radio was actually almost 150, if not more.

What would you like people to know of how they can help you?

Right.

So what we always need, I think, is we need more resources to do more.

The needs are huge in Nigeria.

I know the governments are and what is the government, but they have their limits to what they can do.

Yes, they look up to universities to provide the evidence, to provide the pilots, to provide the results.

When you have the results, they are easy to implement, but they don't have the financial commitment together.

So we need resources to help us replicate the scale of a lot of these wonderful programs that have been vetted, that have been confirmed us impactful, give you a education program where we teach, teach us to teach children using their local language instead of just going to English, which is very high for them.

Okay.

Data shows that if you start with your local language, you are much more likely and quicker to learn to have literacy and numeracy.

There's evidence for us even in the United States.

Yes.

But also data shows that instead of giving handouts to women and vulnerable groups, if you empower them based on what they want to do, not what you want them to do, you're more likely to succeed.

So empower them and help them strengthen their skill, their talent, and then they can achieve and achieve.

And we we believe the unlike many who come with teller machines and hairdryer machines and give them, if that's not what they want, they are going to sell it.

Yes.

But if you ask them, what do you want to do?

Somebody will say, I want to sell a akara.

This, kick is a very small business.

Where can I run your life?

So how do you want to do it?

If somebody says I want to be a cell phone repair.

Now, this is passion.

Help him.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for what you're doing in the community and using your education to help others.

Thank you very.

Much.

It's been a pleasure talking.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson at the American University of Nigeria.

Viewers like you make this show possible.

Join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.

Waste Wells started in 2012.

And the idea of the program is.

How do we change the environment?

Protect it.

Well, what so importantly, we're dealing with how we empower women in our community.

This young ladies and women who are vulnerable pick up this plastic waste, wash them up and clean up, dry it and cut them into young and then turn it to beautiful products like this.

So we generate income from waste wells for the women.

And we've generated over 5 million in cash Nigerian money.

And then our goal is to see that these women clean up the environment at the same time have economic benefits and then social equity, where we have both the Christians and the Muslim come together to work together and, you know, to generat income to support their homes.

We have a particularly her name is Sisi.

She's the leader.

She had done so much and she has just had a launch actually going to over 5 million naira in cash.

Just working from this plastic, which you also have pictures for kids and they're all in school an she pays their fees with this.

So, you know help the women in so many ways.

Our students also involved.

That's American University of Nigeria teaching this women ideas how best they can make this product come out better.

The dimensions and all that.

So this is one of the things that have done so far.

I'm not just buying them for myself.

I'm also supportin the women who are making this.

They are putting in much, so much effort.

And this this is quite admirable.

For u pastors, is about giving back.

It's about service.

It's about sacrifice.

It's about seeing those who are down.

Come on.

It's about giving people another opportunity.

One of the things the Bible says that you'll bless the works of our hands.

For us, this is an opportunity for you to work.

I earn money for yourself.

I want to live this legacy tha we have been able to generate.

One we're saving.

The environment, on the other hand, are empower our women.

And for me, it's a story to tell for generations.

And when we look back, we can look at how these products have impacted the lives of women.

Hi, I'm Angela Williamson, host of everybody with Angela Williamson.

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