GIRLFRIEND OF THE MONTH

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 18^th 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”.

For more info on Tolulope Sangosanya and LOTS Charity Foundation, go to http://www.lotscharityfoundation.org