Yeah great! I am headed for Enugu right now. I will DM the fellow on twitter so we can meet and figure this thing out together.
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About 2months ago, I met Sopuru in front of shoprite gate in Enugu showing off his craft ( a hydraulic powered evacuator). I posted a video and pictures of him on this tread and it generated some comments that inspired me to act. After that day, the only clue I had about Sopuru was the name of the school he attends and a few days later, @bankole helped me to get a volunteer from twitter (Makuachi Okafor) who showed up with his friend Aliyu Ahmed from Kano State and agreed to join me and go in search of Sopuru.
To cut the long story short, we traced Sopuru to one of the worst slums I have ever been to. (Coal Camp in Enugu) where he lives with his mother and siblings in a one room apartment which also doubles as his workshop. I left there that day with a heavy heart but was determined to do everything in my power to bring help to this family through the ingenuity of Sopuru and his brother.
As God may have it, Makuachi and I recently got these two brilliant brothers to a science and technology fair organized by the Enugu state government through Ensubeb(Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board). Sopuru and his brother came 2nd and 1st position respectively and was awarded a cash prize of 180 thousand naira.
During the event, they came to me just before it was their turn to present and informed me that they might not be able to explain their inventions in proper English and also needed me to give them some scientific terms to backup their claims. I nearly busted into tears but quickly put myself together and asked them if they can explain how they built it in Igbo language? They said yes! So I told them to do just that.
In the end, they came out brilliant and everyone was amazed. The kids will be on Radio Nigeria Enugu on Sunday 30th of August 2015 from 1pm-3pm. Some of the comments from @celestocalculus inspired me to go further and I thank him for his contribution. Thank you Bankole for your commitment in ensuring that these boys story would be told to a larger audience.
The two brothers after the event
The boys, their MUM and the organizers of the event.
Me, Makuachi and the boys after the event.
The boys and there MUM when the results were announced.
This is their streetâŚ
Entrance to their house
Assembly plantâŚ
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WOW!!!
Well done bro. You did something really profound here, God bless you. You just set these kids on an upward path.
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Hello @henryC and the TechCabal crew. Thank you a million for following through with this story. Please can we know the names of the two brothers? Looks like that bit is missing.
And just to say that I am particularly happy that the brothers for now can communicate perfectly in Ibo as against English. Of course, they will go on to learn English language properly for their already growing career in Engineering, it is also important that we are able to explain hard subjects like this in our own languages.
My very first comment since I joined the Radar community and I am so glad it is for inspiring action taken.
Will be happy to be part of this story as it develops.
Great =j
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The name of the brothers are Sopuru and Tochukwu Odoh. Thanks for your comment.
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Yeah we did it!
Super Cool!
Dude ! Youâre now a Nigerian+, you saw a problem and did something about it. Most of us will just sulk about it and move on till the next thing to sulk about shows up. Respect!!!
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This is really great and inspirational.
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This is great!
Kudos @henryC
Sorry it took this long, but
http://techcabal.com/2015/09/07/sopuru-enugus-diamond-in-the-rough/
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Thank you Bankole for a well written story. I also wish to thank ENSUBEB (Enugu State Universal Basic Education) and Community Innovation Center Enugu for giving the kids a platform to showcase their talent.
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The kind of story i love to readâŚ!
Quick question - Any issues with their current education? i am concerned they cannot communicate well in English (at the moment), If there is need to get them into a better school we can start a gofundme/indiegogo account for their education, or get a mentor/sponsor to take them up. @henryC
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Hi people, thanks to Techcabal for crafting such a beautiful story out of this kids efforts and making it accessible to everyone, everywhere.
As this point, how can we best ensure that he gets the support that he needs? While the report mentions that he is on a scholarship, it doesnât tell us what level he is at.
It is obvious that this guy needs immediate investment of effort (and perhaps money) to get him closer to his dreams. Assuming that he is closer to the end of his course than the beginning based on his age, hereâs a proposal for an action plan:
- @henryC creates a gofundme page for this kid in order to get him to a good A-Level boarding facility in Nigeria. So far, I have found two colleges (both in Lagos) that offer this - Oxbridge College and D-Ivy.
- A proposal is made to either of these/similar college for a scholarship, at least in part.
- The aim of this would be to help him hone his English speaking and presentation skills to put him in a better position to confidently seek international scholarships.
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Thank you for your well thought out suggestions on an action plan. I have looked at the two schools online and they seem very reasonable. I think it would be nice if we write a proposal to the schools first so we can have a specific figure we are looking at.
When we have a figure, I can go ahead to create a Gofundme page for the kids.
Iâm so sorry about my late response to this. Iâm still quite committed, even though I havenât got much free time. I can investigate fees, but the âmeatâ will be in the proposal to the schools. Perhaps we should put this out there first - whoâs good at writing proposals?
How did I miss this thread? This is so, so inspiring. Thank you @henryC
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