Sunday 11 September 2016

The idea behind Charity with Ayaoba

Spurred by the desire to make a better society and the need to give hope to malnourishe children and children hawking in the street, Esther Sandra Ayaoba in June 2016 started Charity with Ayaoba, an organisation that campaigns against child hawking and malnutrition.  


Asides Charity with Ayaoba, Esther studies Law, runs an online beauty store and a blog. The blog aims at giving support to business start ups and to help them avoid certain mistakes in business which Esther herself made in business. Wondering how Esther does it, she accepted that it's a whole lot of work. In her words, 'It's a whole lot of work, most times I don't get to update my blog as much as I want to, but God has been faithful.'  

Talking about her family and friends reactions when she started out, she mentions that her father especially is really scared of all  she has to do, she didn't fail to acknowledge God for his strength stating that, '... with God, there is really no cause for alarm.'  Typical of every start up, funds is one of Esther's challenges, and then convincing parents on the need to get their children off the street, considering the dangers -  rape, kidnappings, initiation into cult groups, accident etc - that these children may be exposed to while hawking. 'There are a lot of dangers to hawking, but there's little no one can do because the economic situation has pushed majority to that point', this Esther said in describing the hawking situation in Nigeria.  

There's evidently a need to empower parents who are able to raise money from sending their children to the streets. Esther agreed to this, saying, 'Yes, there're plans to empower them in their areas of interests, there's also plan to educate them on the dangers of hawking, there are parents who are well to do, but still push their children out to hawk'.

Esther suggests that law should be enforced, free education should be made totally free, so that parents wouldn't have to pay anything at all in school, and then that the government should make live better for citizens. '...there is a high rate of poverty in the country and most people live daily on hawking goods. Also the high cost of acquiring shops is one of the major reason people are outside hawking, they have low profit in their sales to get a shop they will not be able to afford.'

Having understood the economic situation, Esther doesn't seem to have much problems with adults hawking regardless of the dangers involved, so she is particular about children hawking in the streets. She advises therefore, that the government should put in place, laws that would reduce child hawking. It's worthy to mention at this point that during the time public schools shut down in Oyo State, Esther organised free tutorials for students in public schools. What great work of charity. 

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