Today marks 3 years since the formation of RETECH Foundation in Nigeria. We caught up with our Chair and Founder of RETECH Foundation to reflect on the journey so far. “3 years ago, we set out with a blank sheet of paper, but we had a mission to provide a comprehensive range of opportunities to allow our youths to develop the skills, knowledge and competence required to improve their lives and livelihoods and a vision to be a leading strategic partner in mentoring and supporting the future leaders of Nigeria. Over the past 3 years we have put in place the structure, and have developed strategies, processes and procedures to achieve our mission and vision.
The journey so far has been tough, but we have been resilient and focused in ensuring we achieve our goals. Our scholarship programme has been set up to reduce inequality and guarantee education in line with the sustainable development goals, it has also been set up to improve academic performance by motivating and encouraging our beneficiaries and their classmates to work hard and focus on their studies. Ultimately, we know our scholarship programme will improve the lives and livelihoods of our beneficiaries. So far, we have awarded scholarships to 114 pupils in 93 public secondary schools in 27 States across Nigeria, over 70% of which are female. I am pleased to see our scholars taking on leadership roles in their various schools. We launched our good citizenship programme to promote respect, honesty, good attitude and responsibility amongst secondary school pupils, our paint your school initiative, our first in a series of Good Citizenship initiatives has been set up to improve school infrastructure and more importantly to develop teamwork, painting and entrepreneurship skills amongst public secondary school pupils. So far, we have over 400 beneficiaries from 8 public secondary schools across the Country. We launched our book clubs initiative last year to improve the reading culture and practical application of reading amongst public secondary school pupils and since then, we have over created over 200 book clubs with over 1,800 book club members in over 17 secondary schools across the Country.
I would like to thank all our trustees, Ugochukwu Uzu, Franklin Umole, Adekemi Adisa, Aday Adetosoye, Irenosen Ohiwerei and Nurudeen Umar as well as members of our leadership team, Joy Egborge, Olabimpe Alabi, Isi Akwara and Tobore Egborge, all our volunteers and our partners/sponsors too numerous to list for your unwavering support and dedication in the past 3 years. The journey so far has been very impactful thanks to you all. With so much still to be done you will continue to hear lots from us in the coming weeks, months and years as we continue to implement new programmes and expand on our existing programmes.