Students of Marist Bicentenary College Ngor Okpala, Imo State Launch a Crowd Funding Project to Support People with Disability

By Tunde Eso 

A group of junior secondary school students from Marist Bicentenary College, in Ngor Okpala, Imo State, known as SIEFED Tech Team, which means Students Involved in Funding and Enabling Economic Development, came up with a project, "The Community Finance Project", an online platform with the core mission of connecting people to people with disabilities through crowdfunding. They created this platform based on the obstacles to financial stability faced by people with disabilities. 

The aim of this project, therefore, is to help people with disabilities to start or grow a microenterprise so that they can become self-reliant and cater for their basic needs. It will also minimize discrimination against people with disabilities in Nigeria and the world at large and promote equality of all persons.

The team of students is committed to ensuring better economic and employment opportunities for millions of people with disabilities and reducing the poverty rate which is very high in Nigeria. 

 

The young students participated in a national competition organized by SAGE Nigeria in Abuja from 25th to 28th June 2023 with their project "Community Finance Project". As the most socially responsible project at the SAGE competition this year, the team won the most prestigious award of "Community Service Award", given by the CEO of SAGE Nigeria, Mr Agwu Amogu. 

SAGE Nigeria. 

SAGE is an acronym for Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship. It is an international program initiated at the California State University Chico USA in 2002. It is currently operating in all the continents of the world. The SAGE mission is to help create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations and social enterprises address the major unmet needs of our global community. 

SAGE program engages young people in a hands-on learning process on how to create wealth, help others and their communities.

Students are to form a team of five persons, come out with a project that addresses some of the SDG Goals, and prepare a script which will be pitched according to SAGE judging criteria during the competition. The competitions are in two folds; first, a national competition held in individual countries where all teams will gather at a place and pitch their presentations, annual report and project, secondly, the international competition where the two best teams from each country will gather at a host country organized by the SAGE global body for another competition. At the global competitions, the teams stand the chance to meet with world entrepreneurial leaders and foreign agencies who might decide to adopt any of the projects and sponsor it.

HOW THE PROJECT WORKS

According the team, first they identify people with disability, get to know them, then they galvanize them into various economic co-operative groups based on their skill sets and interest then with the help their teachers, parents and volunteers, they provide entrepreneurship or literary training for the various co-operatives. At the end of the training, approved co-operatives with viable business plans, are put up on their community finance platform on their website for crowdfunding. One can donate through the website or their mobile app available for download in Google Play Store. All transactions are encrypted so that card information cannot be obtained by anyone on the internet.  Their project is online and paperless therefore a very environmentally friendly social enterprise.

In conclusion, the students are creating awareness and inviting people, governments, donor agencies etc to support their business by donating to help people with disability so they can meet their target income by the end of the year 2023.

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