The first African female drummer, Araola Olumuyiwa popularly called “Ara” on Wednesday took number of street urchins and drug addicts known as “area boys/girls, but now under rehabilitation to former President Olusegun Obasanjo for mentorship training in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital
Penpushing reports that, Ara is using her established Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), known as “Eko Inspire Me Project’, to turn around the lives of the street urchins now known as street kings and queens for the better, hence, one of her resolve to use the former president as a good contact to transform and reshape their lives for better
The former president while addressing them, emphasised the need to rediscover themselves, as he(Obasanjo) used himself as good example of rediscovery, having being a prisoner once, but eventually gets to the top, having determined to recover himself, but also emphasied the importance of their rehabilitation.
Penpushing further reports that, Obasanjo pointed out that, it was important for the mentees, to have open mind to see things differently and rediscover themselves, before their rehabilitation
“God has not created them as street boys and street girls, that is the first thing to realise, secondly, as you have heard from them, they also know where something snapped in their lives and what went wrong. So the process of rediscovering themselves will start with themselves. was at a time, a prisoner and had faced many challenges in life before getting to the top” Obasanjo stated
The initiator of the project explained that the uprising of street urchins, drug addicts, and illiterates, on the streets of Lagos, had motivated her to launch ‘Eko Inspire Me’ on October 19, 2022, held at EbonyLife Place, stressing that the idea was to transform their lives for better and become responsible in the society and world at large
“Gradually we hope that we will be able to take them off the streets where they make money, we want to engage them and empower them”, the project initiator emphasised
Penpushing also reports that, some of participants of the mentorship programme, who spoke, affirmed relevance of the mentoring session, pointing out that the intervention was life changing, and aimed to retrace their steps
“It is a turning point in our lives. For me it’s a shock because I didn’t expect that in my life I will set my eyes on the former President, Obasanjo, it was a shock. In fact, taking pictures with him is a miracle. All these rugged attitudes, will be stopped by God’s grace because with what I have seen here today, I am praying to God to answer my prayers so that I will see a helper”, one of them declared
