Ekum Ogbe, a young entrepreneur, specialises in coaching young people from broken homes.
Ogbe, the CEO of ‘Ekumogbe’, a start-up firm, spoke more about her activities in this interview.
Can you speak about your educational background?
I graduated from Abuja Capital International College in 2015, after that I attended London Brunel International College for a foundation year.
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In 2016, I started studying Law in Brunel University London where I was a member of the Brunel Law Society, the Brunel Nigerian Society and secretary to Brunel Winners Campus Fellowship.
In 2019, I graduated with a 2:1 in LLB Law with a Bronze award as a certificate of achievement and also a silver award in recognition of my volunteer efforts and commitment to the community.
I went on to become an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators Nigeria in 2019 during the first part of the Nigerian Law School.
I am currently in the Nigerian Law School training to become a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
What spurred you into helping young people from broken homes?
It’s a situation I’ve personally experienced and I can relate to the struggles of growing up that way and realising that there is almost no support for young people in that category.
I’ve also had conversations with friends, acquaintances and even strangers that are within my age bracket and younger, and I know and can relate to the struggles they all face, it’s also easier for me to understand because I’ve been there myself.
A good number of parents try to help but it’s difficult to fully do that when you’re not seeing things from the child’s perspective.
In other words; coming from a broken family myself, I saw a problem with this, especially in Nigeria and I’ve decided to help and not allow other young children to struggle when they can have it easier.
What kind of struggles do children from broken homes pass experience?
Most children from broken homes lack self-confidence and this goes on to affect academic performance and results in anti-social behaviours.
Sometimes these children are robbed of their childhood by being made to grow up fast and make-do with what they’ve got financially and emotionally.
Young children from broken homes tend to bottle up a lot of things and feelings which will eventually surface in an unhealthy manner once they mature.
Depression, social anxiety disorder and even emotional turmoil are different struggles that young children face after separation.
As much as it’s not very recognised, it’s a real thing and a lot of young people struggle with that.
Did you acquire any special skill on this before starting?
What I do is professional coaching and not counselling, this is a common misconception about what coaching is.
As a coach, I use quality coaching tools and my capacity to ask quality questions to get people the results they seek.
In other words, I’m professionally trained to help people take quality steps to identify their desired goals and utilise their full potential to achieve these goals.
I am currently certified with SOBCA (Sam Obafemi Behavioural Change Academy) as a coach and also enrolled to become a mental health first aider so as to develop long term resourcefulness to help as many people as possible.
My skill-set is work in progress while I learn more from the field supporting those needing help.
What have been your discoveries since you started this?
I’ve discovered that very few people understand that living under the same roof while being in a clearly broken marriage will have just as much effect on the children when it’s not properly addressed.
How many people have you helped so far?
I have been doing this subconsciously and unintentionally with people I come in contact with, including friends but I never considered doing it on a professional level until I realised how much it is needed in our society.
So I decided to do this as a business.
I launched out my brand ‘Ekumogbe’ recently and people can reach me on Facebook.
What is your advice to parents raising children from such homes?
I would advise a parent taking care of a child from a broken home to get help for themselves.
If they are not emotionally or mentally in the right place, it’ll be almost impossible to be there for the children.
