The Namu Project

16/09/2024

Hi all,
I’m sorry this is a late update.
The waters have started receding thankfully though there are reports that some are still trapped.
More than 5000 people are spread over 36 makeshift camps.

In the next fortnight, the State Government will look at trying to get people access again to their homes if they are habitable and support where they can to get them back to life before the floods.

They are also doing a lot of work around pest control and drainage in these sites.

Volunteers continue to do amazing work feeding large groups and medics give their time to support too.

We have raised £50 in the last 24hrs and I will send that directly to the feeding teams.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping in any ways you can. You are appreciated 🙏🏾

https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-support-to-flood-victims-in-maiduguri-nigeria?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=customer&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dr&attribution_id=sl:b86c4c72-82eb-4654-9ba2-1ca1b69373b1

15/09/2024

Hi guys,
An update from yesterday. You my amazing tribe raised £500 yesterday! I am truly humbled. Thank you.

The early efforts are still around meeting peoples urgent needs - food, shelter, medical supplies.

With many sheltering in schools and religious buildings that seems mostly taken care of temporarily.
Feeding is a round the clock job handled by many untiring volunteers and charities. It is often a thankless task as often the supply can’t meet the demand. They often need a security detail to prevent a stampede.

We will send £500 today - with £200 of that going to buying medication and the rest helping with feeding efforts.

As ever please keep sharing the donation link and any ideas you have that can help.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-support-to-flood-victims-in-maiduguri-nigeria?utm_campaign=man_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&attribution_id=sl%3A2a7f61cd-ef8f-451c-ade0-d6e70f77c9f7

Gratefully,

Mina

Hi all, For those who don’t know me, I am Mina and I am involve… Mina Endeley needs your support for URGENT Support to Flood Victims in Maiduguri, Nigeria ️

14/09/2024

Dear friends,
The rescue efforts continue. Yesterday I learned of one baby born in the middle of all of this chaos, but I am told of at least 7 heavily pregnant ladies camping out at schools as ‘home’ no longer exists.

Thank you all for your donations. Because of these we could send another £200 yesterday to help feeding efforts. Thank you so very much for sharing these posts and donating.

Not for a second do I take for granted your choice to help here when there is so much need everywhere.

Please do keep sharing the link https://gofund.me/fc0b7be6

Gratefully 🙏🏽 ,

M

13/09/2024

Thank you all for your kind donations.
Yesterday we send £350.
People are still being rescued from their homes and being taken to places of safety.

Hot meal kitchens are being set up by volunteers in their neighbourhoods and our donations have gone to supporting two meals a day.

Please help share the link to the fundraiser. Every little bit helps.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-support-to-flood-victims-in-maiduguri-nigeria?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=customer&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dr&attribution_id=sl:c706eb13-6afd-4452-ab23-83037d09aead

11/09/2024

Dear Insta, Linkdin and FB friends,

Many of you know Maiduguri is my hometown, the place I grew up and I was just there in July, working with the Borno State Government to train community health workers and support a secondary school for girls from IDP camps.

On Tuesdat this week, the Water dam burst and there has been unprecedented flooding on a level never seen before and the impact has been overwhelming.

Entire communities that were already struggling have been displaced, critical infrastructure washed away, and the resulting food insecurity is severe.
Families are struggling without basic necessities like shelter, clean water, and food.

As a doctor I dread to think of what the next weeks will bring for population health in a country where cholera is endemic.

Please consider donating—no amount is too small.
Your support will directly reach many in desperate need, and sharing this post will help spread the word.

Maiduguri flood: Alau dam burst and wetin we know about flood in Borno - BBC News Pidgin

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5dv26nz6vo.amp

Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity. 💙

Hi all, For those who don’t know me, I am Mina and I am involve… Mina Endeley needs your support for URGENT Support to Flood Victims in Maiduguri, Nigeria ️

07/01/2024

Happy new year FB fam!

With many of us taking down our Christmas trees and ornaments. Do you have any cracked or damaged ones that you are going to be throwing away?

I’d love to rehome them for you please.

With the crochet craft classes in the orphanages in Lagos starting, we are teaching the kids to repurpose and recycle and they will be crocheting using plastic bags and giving cracked/broken ornaments a new lease of life.

I can take any shatterproof ones.

If you can help, please pm me and we can arrange getting them:)

24/10/2022

Mr Pelumi spent another week with the kids and this is his account of what happened this weekend.

Happy Sunday Everyone.
It's been awesome with the kids thus far. We had a great time together yesterday again. Their joyful welcome was quite elating for me. As we settled, I had them submit the assignment I gave to them previously; they were all beautiful.

We had quite a number of lovely cards they had made. There were multiple productions from each child; such applaudable efforts. Some of them were still working though, but beautiful works in progress.

The designs they made. Amazing. Really amazing. It's great to see how well their minds are birthing newness in creativity. They weren't giving me the regular square shaped designs. There were sparks of novelty in their works. Ayomide has an outstanding work. The edges of his cards are super smooth. One would hardly notice they're made from waste cartons.

With more practice and little touches of improvement, the kids are good to go as Masters in Cards creation; that's for the outer aesthetics though. We are yet to work on the details of the card content. An art piece has to be beautiful in and out, for it to be acquirable.

We would be focusing on creating attractive and error-free card contents in the next class. I know we would do great at that as we have done with the aesthetic cover.

We have an arts competition coming up. One of the lesson teachers gave us this info yesterday. The kids would be participating and I'm quite confident that the kids would do excellently well with the skills they've acquired and with the ability they've gained to transform wastes to media of beautiful expressions.

We are doing well and making a lot of progress. It's been a beautiful ride of 'art-filled' adventure with the kids. I'm astonished at the outcomes thus far. And we are set for more.

19/09/2022

Hi Instagram,
It has been a little while. Our arts class in Lagos has continued with .

The children are@working on the theme “home is where love is”. Below is Mr P’s account of yesterday’s class that I really wanted to share with you. It feels really good to be part of this. Mr Pelumi sees the children twice weekly and you can see all his accounts and pictures on our website (link in bio).

Pelumi says:
“Happy Sunday to Everyone. Yesterday was one of it's kind at the orphanage home. It was a remarkable experience. When I arrived, I beckoned the kids and they brought their works to me.

Of a truth, home is not just where love is, it is where the heart is. Seeing Daniella and Stephen, was the last thing I would have imagined possible but to my surprise I saw them at the orphanage home yesterday. They were back. They had been taken to the boarding house but it appears that, only their physical bodies went, their hearts stayed back at the home. One cannot live away from his heart; there had to be a way and they did find their way back to the home. Life at the boarding school was strange. Seniors' punishments amidst other things, didn't go down well with them, so they were brought back.

With the squad now complete, we set out to work. Much has been done, just a few touches here and there were needed. Esther is working on a third personal project as we wait for the others to tidy up their work.
Tidying up, for the others, is taking some time because they need to give some more detailed filling to the backgrounds of their pieces. We want to produce works that can be acquired not just class activities.

Daniella and Stephen have quite a lot to do. I believe they would meet up. I also proceeded with my project.

Having our two friends back was an astonishing and beautiful experience. Everyone's happy now.

Thank you!”

11/07/2022

Another beautiful day creating at the orphanage and Mr P had this to say:


A pleasant evening to All.

Awesome experience as usual. The kids were excited at my arrival yesterday. Going through their works, I realized there were spaces to be filled in the background. I guided them on what to do and how to work around with the colors.

Arts helps to save the environment and keep our planet fit. Quite interesting to see the orphanage coordinator gather up waste cartons from Church for the kids to work with. So thoughtful of her. We have more cartons now and they are really good. They would serve as good surfaces for the children's drawings.

Drawings are basic to artworks. The kids are not finding it so easy though. They enjoy pasting the fabrics. Drawing is quite challenging for them. To work around this, I'm considering giving them drawing practices to sharpen their skills. They would improve overtime.

The kids worked quite well yesterday as usual. Describing their works, I would say, "fun-filled, abstract and interesting" would be suitable words. But each child delivered according to his or her own unique way of expressing creativity.

Talking about uniqueness, I would speak of Isaac. Quite abstract in his expressions of arts. I realized he needed more attention and help. As a way of encouraging him, I celebrated him before the other kids and he was really excited about that. I worked with him on his project and we were able to come up with something fantastic. Yet another unique kid is Ayomide. I didn't know apples could have eyes, mouth and legs!. Ayomide's apple did. His work is quite fun-filled. Artwork is really interesting.

I believe that with more attention and guidance for the kids, the best in them would come.

The rest of the write up is in the comments below:)

01/07/2022

Pelumi’s reflections on yesterday’s class at the orphanage
********************************************
The kids have done quite well in the last project. All hands have been on deck. They've learnt quite well, to replicate an image in their own unique expression of creativity.
Moving on to something new; we are exploring 'Still life arts'. A step higher than replicating an image, we are working with live objects.

Fruits. We are starting with fruits. I took an apple along to the home. We placed the apple before us and created a whole collage piece of it.

'As much as your eyes can see', would be a good way to describe this work. Every detail that can be picked is important.
As their major project this week, the kids will be giving back on cartons, live fruits placed before them. Colours and details, well expressed in each of their pieces.
Their coordinator will get fruits for them. Her interest and inputs in the art works is quite encouraging.

I realized that part of the curriculum is for the children to make use of waste papers, especially magazines and other colourful prints, for their collage work. Presently though, there's shortage of waste papers for this purpose. There are more waste fabrics available than papers. Hence we would pay more attention to the fabrics and possibly venture into other materials later.

We have a major project coming up soon. We are clearing up bottle caps, which would serve as our work material, from the environment and we would be making such a beauty out of them. We started gathering already.

Waste papers. Waste fabrics. Bottle caps.
Arts doesn't just create beauty, it cleans and heals the environment while doing.
It's been amazing with the kids thus far. They're lively and excited. And we bond quite well. Art sure connects hearts and art does make hearts come alive.

31/05/2022

A grateful post



I think the biggest impact we have on each other as humans is time spent. Time we invest in listening and the connections we make. I am grateful that whilst I can’t be in the orphanages, there are people who are there and investing their time and making connections with the kiddies.

We set up as a charity in Feb 2019 because it was becoming more difficult to coordinate things we wanted to do charitably without a banner to put them under.
The CAC registration process was a good way of making me reflect on just why this needed to happen and whether I thought I could sustain the pace we were working at long term.

Since we became a charity, there has been lots of red tape (and justifiably so!) around charitable accounting and spending. It has allowed us to show everything and be completely accountable - especially to people who don’t know me/us and what we are about. I am grateful for this.

The introvert in me of course has had to learn to talk about Namu, what it means to me and why I think it is important and also have had to learn to ask for help in all of those areas I am not so strong at - publicity, fundraising, managing accounts, social media (and all of the others!). Definitely a work in progress.

In the last few years, I can honestly say every hour I am awake is peppered with so many pop up thoughts about just how we can make life a little bit better for just one person.
I see faces of the little people who have stolen my heart and wish I could be there ‘doing’ all the time. I enjoy investing my time in them and was really grateful that I had six months whilst deployed last year to do just that.

and thank you very much for your regular time investment in our little people’s futures.

Thank you wonderful people for your help and for indulging my musings.

Please give us a like on FB for the algorithms. X

30/05/2022

Waste to wealth Lagos Chapter continues.
Mr Pelumi writes:

“Indeed, having a passionate interest in something ignites a fire within us, our hearts burn with this fire as we concentrate on what we love. We are drawn to curiously learn more about it. The desires are strong and our persistence at it, solid as a rock, helps us to create a productive impression out of it. Does this reality revolve in the world of adults alone?, definitely not. If you have ever seen a child with a passion, it's nothing but beauty wrapped up in ecstasy. I speak as such because this was my experience with the kids yesterday.

Yes, yesterday was all shades of beauty with the children at the orphanage. It was at the cool of the evening, I arrived to a scenery of kids seated and communing with fabrics. Clearly, they have been at it prior to my coming. Seems they were all trying to fit in the missing part of the puzzle they were working on. Cartons with interesting shapes and patterns lay before them as they creatively engaged their hands skillfully. And what was the end to all these passionate dilligence? All was targeted at producing a portrait collage of the picture reference before them.

So happy that the kids have developed a passion for learning and I am sure they will not cease to grow in it.

It was a splendid day with the kids. We continued with the human face composition. Seems we have lots of abstract and semi-abstract works in progress by the kids. 😊.
The sight of their works brought a smile to my face. Hopefully we'll be done with this phase this week.

Thank you! Pictures are attached below.

Good afternoon and happy Sunday to everyone.”