BY JOSEPHINE IGBINOVIA

If young people are economically empowered and reoriented to think productively, then Nigeria can be sure to overcome  corruption and wastefulness. This is the conviction of Rita Omovbude, the Founder/Project Leader of Street Project, a social enterprise in the heart of transforming the lives of young people.

A 2002 graduate of Creative Arts from the University of Lagos, she is currently doing a Masters Degree in Mass Communication at the Pan African University.  Rita who is fulfilling her dream of practicing advertising is presently a Senior Copywriter at Yellow Brick Road, an advertising agency in Lagos. Before now, she’s worked with several notable advertising agencies as a Copywriter also. Enjoy our encounter!

What’s the idea behind Street Project?
Street Project was conceived in 2005. It was however established in 2008. It’s a social enterprise focused on youth development and empowerment.

What exactly inspired establishing it?
My youth service was a major source of inspiration. Some other youth corps members and I were interested in music and wanted to create a different kind of community development unit called One House. That was in 2002. We used music as a tool for social transformation, with open performances around Lagos e.g., under the bridge at Ojuelegba, schools, etc., singing songs on social development that we composed. These songs were centred on ethnic crisis, unity, ending violence, etc.

Rita Omovbude.

The whole essence as young people was to use our gifts for something innovative that would help humanity. After youth service I still wanted to influence the people around me, as I believe that one doesn’t just come into this life and go away without living a legacy behind. At some point, I began what was called ‘Street Praise’, continuing with the whole idea of using music to achieve social transformation. In 2008, Street Project was formed, focusing on youth development and empowerment. We started with an initiative called ‘Smile for December’.

The organisation is in two directions. One phase is to focus on youths who are vulnerable because of poverty and the second direction is to focus on youths who are talented and gifted but have not got the opportunity to express themselves. Like it is popularly said, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. We know the youths constitute a larger percentage of our population, and most of them are actually not employed or meaningfully engaged. We need to encourage these people, and one way is by giving them an avenue to develop their talents. That’s what Street Project is all about.

What do you do with these young people after identifying their talents?
We mentor them. That particular project is called Project Raw. The first edition of Project Raw took place in 2010 and the second was in 2011. What we do is go out to the streets with our camcorders, approach youths who are probably playing football or just idle, and then we ask them about their talents; whether they could sing, dance or make people laugh.

In 2011, we got close to a hundred people on the street to showcase their talents on our cameras. What we usually do is we shortlist them, train them for two days, and then run a competition where the first three are rewarded with cash prizes and one year mentorship by the likes of Dayo Oliyide, Ige, Kofi the comedian, Onos, to mention but a few. I’m proud to say that quite a number of them who have gone through Street Project are in school presently and using their gifts as a source of revenue. We have MC Jossy who schools in the east presently and is earning money from laughs.

How experienced was this person when you found him?
He wasn’t experienced at all. We have a number of them like that, using their different gifts. Even those who didn’t win at our competitions are meaningfully engaging themselves presently because what Street Project did was to spark the fire on the inside of them so they do not stay idle. However I must say that we are still operating on a small scale. Considering our goals, I believe we can operate on a larger scale and transform more lives if we have the kind of support that we require.

Talking about supports, how have you been getting funds for your activities?
It’s been what they call ‘drops of water making a mighty ocean’. It all started with my funds, funds from friends and family, and then a T-shirt business that we started. The profit from the T-shirt business was used for our earliest projects. Everything is still done on a very small scale. The good thing however was that last year in July, I was able to strike a partnership with a good friend of mine- Tony Blankson.  We’re actually open to more partnerships.

One questions the integrity of some NGOs and groups.  What can one say of your project?
The project has been in existence for five years, and throughout these years, we’ve used our internal resources to achieve the things we’ve achieved. In 2008 we began a project called ‘The Haven’ under our ‘Smile for December’ project, and this took us to the Heart of Gold Children Hospice to distribute valuable items and also show love to the children.

In 2009 we were at the Arrows of God Orphanage in Ajah. There, we taught the over 200 children and teenagers in the home how to paint, draw, sing, dance, etc. We actually put together an intensive training programme for them. In 2010 we were at the Precious Pearls Orphanage where we gave away fantastic packages and had a good time with the children. For a period of six months, we trained selected kids in the home on how to play the piano.

In 2011 we were at the Citadel of Grace Orphanage where we sponsored the education of some kids with the funds we were able to gather; besides making them have a good time. In 2012, we identified with So Said Charity Home, providing them with clean borehole water. We’ve decided to continue our partnership with So Said Charity Home because of the valuable work the home is doing for society- catering for mentally challenged citizens.

We didn’t do these with financial resources of corporate organizations. Another aspect of what we do- the Talent Hunt Competition, has also been consistent and productive. We are real, true and are passionate about what we do. So, you can imagine how much we can do if we were able to generate funds externally to add to our internal funds.