Last year, during our Girl Empowerment Programme, which we did with SAGE Foundation, we met 12 year-old Mary. She’s a brilliant girl, who hails from Oyo State. She lives with her mother and three siblings in Jakande, Lekki, in Lagos state and attends a small private school within her community. She is now is JSS2 and wants to be a Banker in future.

From our assessment, we found that Mary is an intelligent child and is amongst the top students in her class. She also enjoys race and engages in the sport often. Her father is late and her mother’s meagre income as a hairdresser is all that the family lives on. Mary was put on our waiting list, but up til now, we haven’t found a sponsor for her, who would support her academic goals and help her achieve her potential.

Favour is another child we met during the…