5) Description of initiative: my initiative is service based, usind the arts and craft as a way of building children's character against the culture of violence. i am a strong believer of the fact that the trait of conflict and violence start to show early in children of school age, especially in the the class room where they stand to face others who may like or don't like them, some get bullied or alienated from the rest, some teachers are in the habit of instilling resentment in these children as they maltreat or constantly pick on them, that as they grow these experience leaves a scar that in turn makes them less sociable, my program is for children of school age in the nursery and primary level mostly in public schools where they are susceptible to all kinds of unkind treatment from classmates to others. i combine an extra curricular class which lessons in peace and conflict. i am addressing the issue of classroom conflict, rivalry and violence which can lead to more social problems as that child grows. this project involves going to schools in my community especially public schools(who cant afford to pay for these services), using our curriculum to address these issues. i strongly believe that bullies and the bullied when constructively occupied will little or no time for violence, resenment, rivalry etc.

6) Description of innovation: using a curriculum in the arts and crafts, something these children can see and produce, brings out the best in them because my approach is fun while learning. making these children to work in teams and groups helps to give them a sense of belonging, that both the bullied ang bully sometimes find themselves working together, these have brought tremendous results as these kids loosen up and become more friendly. we do craetive drama, make lots of crafts and share ideas on how to achieve class projects. right now we solicit the help of volunteers especially members of the national youth service corp who can participatre in this project to achieve their community development program, the project is self financing, i usee my money most of the time, also some of these school have to provide materials for craft which of course is their property after achieving our aim.

7) Delivery model: we visit schools, get approval from head teachers in our local community (surulere), we eventually hope to get approval from the ministry of education so that we can reach more schools in the state and the country at large

8) Key operational partnerships: i have partnered with head teachers in schools to gain their permission and to assist where possible, Rhema impact foundation is with me on this, i am their national co-ordinator, taking it global is aware of my work, youth corpers in my community who are willing to assist as instructors.

9) Financial model: i source for sponsorship from individuals and companies who can brand the project, also we hope to organise drama concerts and exhibition of our crafts for parents and people to generate income, sales of drama book i compiled.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 70

          • Financing: from our pockets, some schools, sales of our products, drama concerts, individuals, also by creating community awareness to the need for this project.so that parents who can afford it will send their kids for our seminars and workshop for a fee.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: the outcome is that the children love it, the headteachers are pleased, there is less classroom conflict, i have actually worked in a class where all six of the seven children did not accomodate the seventh student, they hated her, but with our group work and approach, there is tremendous cordiality amongst them all. children relate to themsekves with so much love and respect, parents are noticing changes in their kids especially those who had social problems, the kids in my theatre look forward to program time, they are less violent. schools are asking us to start the project with them. especially our public schools who cant afford this kind of sevice and also as there is the pressure on them to include extracurricular programs to their curriculum.

          • Number of clients in past year: from start to now over 200

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: we hope to reach the whole of lagos, and eventually the whole country. we are sourcing for fund to set up a children's center in our community,then the various local goverments and the whole country where these programs can go on as seminars and workshops, we hope to give our instructors a few weeks trainnig from experts in child psychology and aspects that are relevant to our program because we consider that without peace our community and the world will not be conducive to leave in, take for example the niger delta, if the culture of peace had been instilled in the youths right from nursery or primary level, there wont be the situation we are having now. the holy book says "train up a child the way he should go and when he grows he will not depart from it" a culture of peace at an early stage will make this world a better place both now and in the future.

12) Origin of the initiative: As a child, i was quite intelligent in school, as a result when i get a question right, the class teacher will make me to flog those who got it wrong, though i didnt like this but she usually threaten to flog me all their strokes if i dont, so i reluctantly flog my class mates, after school those whom i flogged especially the boys will wait for me on the way and beat me up , this made me scared to go to school and eventually it affected my academics so much that even when i knew the right answer, i refused to say it for fear of being beaten up, i was constantly bullied on this note even up to secondary school level and it has affected me so much that even as a woman people say im sometimes aggressive, i believe it has to do with an unconscious bid to stand up for myself. i dont want anyone to go through this same kind of treatment, though im better now.

Contact Information:
Grace  Okon
extracurricula activities
Xtra Concept
(not for profit, and business.)
8, muniru baruwa street off cole street, ikate surulere, lagos
Nigeria
Tel: 234-802-654-2897
Email: kokorace28@yahoo.co.uk