At the young age of 13, Zainab Salisu Matori, CEO of Matori Empowerment and educational support foundation, nourished the idea of helping little children which manifested by giving food to urchins she found on the streets of Minna, the capital of Niger State.
With a heart in a state of forlorn at the sight of little children strapped with bowls to seek alms to sustain their bellies for the day, Zainab often wondered why the children in her age, at times below, would be left alone to fend for themselves.
As she grew up, she developed the passion to see how she could be of help to the children of the street.
“I had the passion. But seeing the reality of life, I understood that the children do not have the privilege I have. They don’t have food to eat let alone have access to education.”
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However, she realized she could be part of the society to help the children get education while helping their parents, especially the mothers, to be empowered so that they can assist the children to go to school.
“This is because most of the street begging and hawking we see on the street start from homes. The mothers are in the house while they send the kids to get little money for their upkeep. For me, it is wrong but for them, it is not because that is the only option they have. So, I decided to put this up to help them. Let it be a channel in which it can help the women to be empowered and help the children get better access to education.”
But she needed more than passion to see the world of her dream as adequate finances were important for the reality to come into fruition.
Lack of the finances did not deter as she continues to witness children begging for food to survive on the street even though she’s now in Abuja.
“There is a market in Abuja, whenever I go there, I see little kids begging for food and looking rough. I used to think this could be my kids too if I am in the same shoes of their parents. I used to ask myself how they survive under the scorching sun and during the harmattan as everyday when I go to the market, I see them there.”
Away from her thoughts, she said the children are oftentimes shoved off by passers-by while some accommodate them; others buy food for them.
She added that the situation makes the children vulnerable and prone to a lot of social vices.
“Also, When I go to my home town, I hear women complaining that they want to take care of their children but do not have the resources.”
The nudge to finally establish her foundation came when a cousin, Hajara Wanka, who is presently the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs in Bauchi State, encouraged her to put her passion into writing that could be worked on.
“She told me that since I have the passion and the dream to help people, if I don’t start to put my thoughts on paper, nobody will believe me. She encouraged me to start from somewhere.”
“So, I started by registering and I got some volunteers. Some wanted to do it willingly to support the education of the children. So all these put together gave birth to the foundation.”
With just a year since its establishment, she said the foundation has not been able to do much due to a lot of factors.
“Above all, it is the fund while insecurity is another factor. We all know what is happening in the country as some places are not accessible where we could help children in the communities.”
She however said the foundation has helped to put some children in schools.
“We were able to do the little we can but the major ones like accommodation, clean environment for learning and potable drinking water which we could not be able to do due to the restraining factors. But I do my outreach in Abuja, Zamfara and Bauchi States.”
On ways she thinks the menace of child-begging could be stopped, Zainab said, “It needs to start from the parent. There has to be the parents’ support for the children to acquire formal education. Let there be a penalty for people sending their children on the street.”
“This is turning into a monster that in a few years to come, we will not be able to curtail it. For the children, education is education, let them have it, skills acquisition is very important, when a child clocks 10 years old, they should be enrolled in a skills acquisition school or technical school for them to learn how to make use of their hands to create a lot of things.”
“This is important to the economy of the country. If this is done, those that are growing, will help their younger ones and they will be inspired to help their parents.”
