As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Zagreb company CircuitMess and the Nigerian Shiny Gloves Club have been collaborating for two years now, and last year, CircuitMess donated part of the proceeds from the sale of their DJ counter to their association to give as many Nigerian children as possible the opportunity to participate in their programme and develop their skills.
In one of their classrooms sits gifted and willing student Blessing Yohanna. She is a very bright young girl with a great interest and talent for electronics and making things. Unfortunately, she’s in danger of becoming a part of some rather pessimistic statistics. According to a UNICEF survey, more than half of girls in northern Nigeria don’t attend classes or have regular schooling. Although Blessing desperately wanted to continue her education and enroll in electrical engineering college, her parents dissuaded her from doing so because they could not afford to continue her education and didn’t see any prospects in it as she is a female.
“When we heard that Blessing Yohanna was no longer attending classes and why, we wanted to do something about it. We contacted her family and asked them if we could send her some more of our kits directly to her home address, to encourage her to continue learning and developing her talent for electronics, at least from home,” said Albert Gajsak, the CEO of the Zagreb company CircuitMess.
A visit by a Shiny Gloves Club employee to her family home bore fruit – when they saw how much Blessing was looking forward to these kits, they decided to give education another chance and allowed her to re-attend the workshops she loves so much.
“It’s not that her family was vehemently opposed to her education, but just that they simply can’t afford it. I don’t think they wanted to give her false hope, because it’s impossible for them to imagine that we could raise enough money for Blessing to go to the college she wants to attend so much,” explained Albert.
That’s why Shiny Gloves Club first launched the Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds to enable Blessing to continue to study electrical engineering.
“This campaign wasn’t launched by us, but by our partners from the Shiny Gloves Club, but we want to do as much as we can to spread the word and help raise the necessary funds. The standard of living in Croatia is much higher than it is in Nigeria, and in most cases we can enroll in college for free. In order to be able to enroll in college, she needs to raise 10,000 US dollars. It seems like a lot, but I believe there are a lot of people who are willing to give up one coffee in a coffee shop or some other little things, and every kuna raised means a lot to make this a beautiful story with a happy ending. Thank you to everyone who donates and shares this news,” concluded Albert Gajsak of the Zagreb company CircuitMess.
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