Tolulope Sangosanya is the founder of LOTS Charity
Foundation. LOTS (Love on the Streets) Charity Foundation is an NGO that focuses
on feeding, educating, and clothing street children amongst other things.
Prior to their
operation in Dustbin Estate of Ajegunle, Lagos, they were already working in
other environments- feeding street kids and clothing them under the name
‘Project Lots’- “During that period we fed over 5,000 street children and other
vulnerable children; we gave educational support to over a hundred kids,
relocated a family from the refuse dump site, had three health outreaches that
reached over 200 kids, and conducted several clothing drive exercises. LOTS
(Love on the Streets) Charity Foundation is now registered with the Corporate
Affairs Commission (2009). After winning the category for the ‘Best use of
Advocacy’ at the 2010 future awards Nigeria, we got lots of media attention and
now we are getting known for our work at Dustbin Estate nationally. We were
selected as one of the ten credible NGOS that UNICEF will be training and
working with in Lagos State.”
Some of their projects include a health outreach, organized
3 times a year. The main aim of the outreach is to administer and
give the kids as well as their parents, drugs that will reduce cases of malaria
attacks, intestinal worm attacks and also treatment for general body illnesses. In association with
the health outreach is
the Hygiene Pack Program which is a means through which these kids can have anti toxic drugs, vitamin supplements, and general body cleaning materials- like
bathing soap, deodorant and tooth brush, paste and other essentials.
For many kids registered
in LOTS Charity Foundation, “home sweet, home” is nothing more than living on a dumpsite”. LOTS have relocated
one family and expect to do more as funding is available. The main reason for
this is the Proposed Housing Project Plan in February 2012. LOTS also provide basic
clothing as donated by various individuals and organizations to children and
adults living on the dump sites.
LOTS has assisted several
families in paying the school fees of their children in the form of scholarships,
by involving supporters and kind hearted Nigerians in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
The school fees are usually paid by the sponsor who may take up sponsorship of a
child all through Primary or secondary school. They have also
created a resource centre which has a functional library and currently provides literacy classes, supplementary
classes and skills in subjects such as Mathematics, English, Financial
literacy, arts, cooking, photography, tailoring, etiquette, among others.
On the 18th of December every year, the children are
taken out to entertainment centres as part of the socialization education program
tagged ‘Project Lots’. The Project aims at
showing love and care during a season like the Christmas season, when there is so
much sharing and giving.
“The hope and plan we have
is that one day soon, majority of DUSTBIN ESTATE will be converted to TREASURE
ESTATE which would be suitable for human beings to live in. Thus, our focus for
the next five years (2012-2016) will mostly be providing infrastructure most
especially suitable accommodation for families currently living on the dump site. In five years, we hope to have built
a world class resource center which will
help reduce crime rate as we will gainful employ the attention of children and
youths in the environment by providing ‘education’ in a fun way; both formally
and informally. Hopefully, we will own a free school one day on what used to be
called DUSTBIN ESTATE.”
For Tolulope, the definition of success is not the amount of money possessed in her
bank account. Instead, it’s the amount of lives she influences positively. What
makes her successful aren’t the tangible things, but the intangible like love,
care, giving, attention to others, positive change and more- “It is our dream and hope
that one
day LOTS Charity Foundation can complete what we set out to achieve and by that we mean- no more hunger, no more naked people, proper medical care, and quality education; but until
then, there is so much work to be done”.
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