The Benzone Development Foundation (BDF) has one overarching goal of building the future by nurturing today’s young minds. One of the ways we seek to accomplish this is by zooming out of the lives of individual children to the environments that produce and sustain them. By this, we mean that our commitment also extends to making a positive impact in the lives of the vulnerable communities where these children live–further embodying our mission to foster and maintain sustainable development by empowering these communities.
This vision recently took the BDF’s dedicated Volunteering Team to some slum communities within Abuja–Kabusa, Kubwa, Lugbe, Kurudu, and Jikwoyi. We believe that a compassionate and empowered society cannot be built by one man but by a community. This initiative, aimed at extending help to the less privileged widows and children residing in these regions through the distribution of essential food items, was tactfully conducted during the Christmas holiday season–a joyful season, yes, yet one that often exaggerates the gap between the rich and the poor. For the widows, women and children of these regions, life is marked by daily struggles for necessities, which makes even the smallest gesture of support significant. Recognizing this, the Benzone Development Foundation organised an outreach to these villages, bringing not just food items but a message of hope.
We started off in Kabusa village, a slum community located on the outskirts of Abuja. Kabusa is home to many families who face challenges such as food insecurity, inadequate shelter, and limited access to health services. The testament of our dedication to making a positive impact on these marginalised communities began on this heartwarming mission to Kabusa village in Abuja.
The outreach was carefully planned and executed. The idea was to ensure that the outreach would meet the pressing needs of the families who needed it the most. Over 80 bags of rice, cartons of Indomie noodles, cans of vegetable oil, and a variety of spices and seasonings were distributed among families in the Kabusa community. For many of the widows and children, these items represented more than just food; they were a lifeline during a time of acute need.
Our volunteering team made this a huge success. Beyond distributing items, they also dedicated their time to engaging with the community, listening to their stories to gain insights into their problems and daily struggles–the volunteers’ heartwarming smiles encouraging the women’s own too while threatening to outshine the sun that blazed above. More than anything, the volunteers helped to bring home the fact that behind every poverty, hunger or economic impoverishment statistic are real people who need every help that they can get–from widows raising children on their own to families living without access to basic resources, and children growing up in conditions that make it difficult for them to dream.
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The BDF’s interaction with these communities helps to bring into perspective the importance of satisfying the basic needs of these underprivileged people. How can one think of education when hunger has made itself at home in his belly? For us, this outreach was a step closer to creating a brighter future for those facing challenging circumstances.
Just as we aimed to, our outreach to Kabusa brought food to bellies, smiles to faces and hopes to the hearts of the women and children especially as the Christmas holidays approached. More than anything, the outreach reinforced the foundation’s belief that it is only through collective efforts that we can build a more inclusive and compassionate society, one community at a time.
It must be reiterated that this outreach to Kabusa is not an isolated event but a part of the foundation’s larger vision of sustainable community development through which we can optimally break the cycle of illiteracy among children in these communities. Through this temporary relief, we hope to inspire and foster a sense of inclusion in these communities. Such community engagement also builds relationships and trust, which is crucial for future engagements and outreaches.
After Kabusa, we went on to Lugbe, Kubwa, Kurudu, and Jikwoyi, other slum areas with families facing similar challenges. The struggles are similar: lack of basic amenities and more dangerously, a lack of hope that often metamorphoses into societal vices and harmful behaviours. Through our outreaches, we hope to reach as many people as we can because for us, every child and family matters.
