Lightup School
Lightup funds the Lightup School which serves Ikhare, a community dominated by citizens of Togo, Nigeria and Benin Republic. The Lightup Nursery and Primary school started in January 2018. The Ikhare linear settlement is situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Lagoon water. This settlement houses migrants from Nigeria, Togo and Benin Republic. Before the establishment of the school, there was no free school in the community. The community is dominated by impoverished residents, most of whom practice fishing and petty trading.
Neither they nor their children are ambitious. Parents are not motivated to send their children to school because there is no free school on the island. To access the closest free school, the children will need to pay for a round trip to take a boat to cross the ocean to the main land. However, due to the financial status of the residents, they are unable to afford the transportation of their children to a free school.
Therefore, children stay at home, parents abuse their children sexually and many children get pregnant, thereby ensuring that poverty is recycled within the community. Lightup worked with the missionaries of Ikhare to provide free education for the children of Ikhare.
Today, every year, approximately 100 children are given free access to education in the Ikhare community. Children are also provided with moral instruction and information on how to protect themselves from abuse. Parents meetings are held often to assist parents in their parental duties. Now, the children have a broader scope of opportunities concerning their future ambition beyond fishing.
