Educational and Capacity Development Expert, Adewale Onagbesan Takes TECH & EMPLOYABILITY Skills Masterclass To The Prison

".....and I thought to myself, if inmates are encouraged to gain degrees, I can also expose them to TECH and EMPLOYABILITY Skills."

For the past four years, as a way to celebrate his annual birthday, Adewale Onagbesan has dedicated every March 9th to reaching out to the Uncharted people thereby giving them Hope, through his social impact platform – The Matumaini Initiative. MATUMAINI is a Swahili word that means Hope.

The inaugural project saw him reach out to pupils of Oluwole Primary School, Akoka, Lagos State, where he admonished and encouraged them to remain steadfast in their quest to become future leaders. The following year, he reached out to school children at the Modupe Cole Home for the Physically Challenged in Akoka, Lagos, where he charged the children about their ability to be successful irrespective of the disability they have. Also, his next project had him reach out to young people at the Whanyinna School as well as inhabitants of a section of Makoko, a slum community in Lagos, where he challenged the children to learn from the stories of many great minds who rose to stardom despite their background.

In 2022, Adewale decided to reach out to a different group of people – inmates, which according to him were very special to his heart. He said; "it is inspiring to know that some of the inmates go to school while in the prison. So, I thought my birthday would be a great opportunity to reach out to and expose them to 21st-century Tech and Employability skills which will be relevant to them when they get back to society."

The inmates were exposed to Tech skills such as; Website design, Data science, Product design, Product Management, Product Marketing, and Cybersecurity, which was facilitated by the CEO of UTIVA – Eyitayo Ogunmola. The Employability skills were facilitated by the celebrant himself who is an expert in Personal and Professional development.

In addition to the training, Adewale donated a welfare package including food items, and over 400 sanitary pads to the female inmates, as well as raise funding for 50 inmates who are being prepped for the 2022 JAMB exam.

The core motive for the Pad donation for over 400 female inmates revolves around a unique way to reach out and give hope to the female inmates in line with the commemoration of International Women’s Month. The perceived gaps were that, there is a need to ensure proper overall hygiene for women within the correctional centre, and that while these female inmates may not enjoy life in abundance, they should have the privilege of living in sufficiency. It is better to have these welfare materials in sufficiency rather than in scarcity. In view of this, the donation will fill the gap of the unforeseen scarcity of sanitary pads which may threaten the hygiene and health of the female inmates.

With respect to the donation of JAMB/UTME forms to inmates, the broad objective is in line with the realization of SDG4. The core goal is to complement the efforts of the correctional facility administrators to ensure that the educational aspirations of passionate inmates are achieved. These inmates are identified and selected by the Head of the Educational Centre within the correctional centre. Upon their successful passing of the examination, we intend to sponsor the best-performing inmates through their tertiary education.

According to him, all of these were made possible by the generous donations from family and friends, as well as the incredible support from his team members at the Matumaini Initiative, who volunteered for the project.