26/04/2025
The birth of Barau Youth Mentorship Program - BYMP; a non-money making education program in our community.
We know definitely, this is never an easy thing to do, especially its sustenance, given that many novel initiatives (just like this one) have witnessed well beginning only to latter become a collapsed systems. Of course, this is an enormous challenges, but it is also not an impossible one. We strongly believe that It is not going to be an impracticable one, most especially when all our heads put together (including your own) are well put into this realization.
Let's start with just a simple question for yourself(myself): did you ever, even for once, think about the hundreds of thousands of bright, yet ambitious students from our local areas who are locked out of educational opportunities—not because they lack potential, but simply because they lack access, strong foundational preparedness, and more importantly, those that could instill doable hopes and actionable mindset in them? Or did you ever think of what you can do as a person to help improve the situation? Reflecting through my own education journey, I was not any different from these underserved young individuals. Without the tumultuous intervention of Muslim Refresher Course Program(M.R.C.P), a non-profit education program, in my life, you would not need to see how, otherwise, Musaiyib would be. May Allah continue to reward our teachers and guideners countlessly.
About six months earlier, shortly after I had completed my final semester as an undergrad, I took a bold step forward, mobilizing some young people in 'Anguwan Malam Barau' community in an effort to see how we can together work to address our local educational challenges. Personally, I talked to some concerned people, seeking how we can at least help those coming after us, so that, they would not have to go through some of the difficulties and mistakes we went through. As you should expect, a good number of them happily welcomed my 'mentorship and career awareness' initiative, adding that it would truly make the difference.
After having a thorough deliberation about the long-list of what our purposes were to what our aims and objectives point to, we eventually put-out on bench, our mission statements along with what our ultimate vision was—to increase access to higher education through bridging the gap of poor foundational education and mentorship programs. Surprisingly, just a six(6) months now, everyone of us is just so excited with the significant improvements recorded so far, from the day one. I'm over happy to unfold that from October, 2024, up till when 2025 Ramadan poked its blessed head, we had been meeting two times every week, sharing and discussing many indigenous problems around education status in our society, Anguwan Malam Barau. Part of what has last been cooked was the continuity of the educational empowerment program after the recently concluded 'Sallah' festive celebration. Also, as part of our plans after 'ƙaramar Sallah', we intend to broaden the scope of this initiative to cover more audience than what was obtainable before.
Yester-night's pre-UTME (JAMB) orientation for our younger ones was just one of the many incredible things we disposed ourselves to be doing for our societal transformation and development. In the end, after extending an open invitation of 'follow-us-through' to anyone interested in ensuring that equitable access to quality education should first begin from our various local societies, I would love to say a very big 'thank you' to all our members, mentors and supporters. May it continue to be sustained one. Aamiin.
