By Amaka Agwuegbo
Teaching crafts is not a vocation or business you find the average Nigerian engaged in, but for Mrs. Modupe Adekunle, an English graduate, the desire to see children master little creative and home keeping skills gave birth to Kraftplus, a multi-creativity centre for children.
According to Modupe, her interest in handcraft was triggered by her mother who always told her that whatever she did with her hands would always feed her.

Pupils displaying beaded rings

“My mother fended for herself and she never failed to remind us on the need to be creative and imaginative so as to be self-dependent. This kind of prepared me for what I’m presently doing as I later took some courses to learn some creative skills and later did a course on Montessori to enable me know how to impact knowledge to children.

“I learnt how to cook different types of food, bake, make beads, tie and dye, soaps, and the likes because I wanted to impact such skills to children. So I decided to teach and provide such services for that and at the same time be accepted in the business society.”
Thus, KraftPlus Creativity Centre aims to revive the dying African craft culture and also teach children how to cook and keep the home, especially when considering that a lot of parents lack the time and will power to teach their children such skills.
“After acquiring these skills, I needed a structured business setup to actualise the integration of this generation to the Nigerian and African crafts and culture by teaching them how to be creative with their hands.”

Though KraftPlus Creativity Centre started Easter this year and runs during holidays so as to allow kids concentrate on their studies, Modupe admits that patronage has been good as the business has been accepted by a large number of parents who want their kids to have such skills but lack the time to teach them.

“The centre has been profitable because what we do is to take the burden of teaching children these skills off their parents and they really appreciate what the kids are learning, which is better than sitting in front of the television all day.”

She pointed out that though some mothers have accepted her line of business, some other still question the sense in teaching such young minds these creative skills.

“Though some question the reason for teaching 4-12 year olds how to cook, but you’ll be surprised at what these children can do. Do you know that 4 year olds can mix flour and sugar to make cup cakes and can also ice their cakes?

“We have 2 groups of 15 children each learning at the centre and children are different with different levels of concentration because while some can concentrate individually, others concentrate better when in groups. So I study them to know how best they can learn and they are always so interested and inquisitive about knowing how to do certain things.”

In her bid to seek improvement in the management of her business, Dupe did a management programme at the Pan African University that has helped broaden her business concept.

“The Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management (CEM) at the Centre for Enterprise Development Services (EDS) has broadened my total scope about business and how to run it. I was going about my business the wrong way because I didn’t pay myself, didn’t carry out any inventory, bought things in bulk and ended up throwing most of them away and didn’t treat those working with me they way they ought to be.

“Now, I’ve realized that my staff are my first customers and come before my external customers. I’m also the face of my customers because I’m able to identify them and they know what I stand for.”

Modupe said one of the major challenges Kraftplus wants to overcome is to make parents believe in handcraft by teaching or allowing their kids to learn how to use their hands.

“Some parents, particularly mothers, don’t want to pay for such services, yet they fail to teach their kids these skills either due to their busy schedule or lack of interest. Our grand-mothers and mothers did a lot of crafty things in the past, so why can’t our children learn such?

“A lot of times, people have this notion that it is only girls that should learn such skills but the last training I organized was won by a 7 year old boy. Crafts are fun and instructional for children and the idea is for them do something enjoyable together, and allow the child the pride of creation and sense of mastery to be able to say, ‘Look, I made this myself!’”Modupe is intent on ensuring the growth of her business by ensuring that she comes up with creative skills that would make the children to keep coming for more.

“KraftPlus Creativity Centre will be a force to be reckoned with by reintroducing African crafts into the country and setting up centres in other states within the next 5 years. But in the nearest future, we would start Kraftplus hunt, which will be some sort of talent hunt for kids to display their creativity.

“This is because having fun is a cornerstone of childhood, and its value should never be discounted when coming up with interesting activities for children to explore.”