Project Description:
Program: Project EXCEL is an after-school program to provide tutoring to SS3 students and prepare them for 2013 May/June WAEC. The main purpose of this pilot program is to improve the performance of these students in WAEC/NECO examinations.
Criteria for choosing the host school:
A host school in the area, the host school must be within 5 miles or 2 bus rides (connections) of selected participating schools. Students and their parents would be responsible for transportation to and from the host school.
● Schools with facilities needed – good chairs and tables,
● Writeable blackboards (or whiteboards)
● Easily accessible and safe for students

Host School – Selected:
Akute Grammar School, Akute Ogun State (very close to Ojodu neighborhood of Lagos State). This school is close to participating schools, secure with fence and windows for each classroom. The school has almost 30 classrooms with whiteboards installed (14 was actually installed by Millions4One)
Criteria for choosing participating schools:
Three schools in the inner-city areas will be chosen. The criteria for selecting such schools would be based on: number of senior students eligible for WAEC, infrastructural state of the school, socioeconomic status of the area.
The schools must provide previous WAEC results for 5 years, this will be used as part of measurement of the success of our program
Participating Schools:
1. Akute grammar school, Akute Ogun State (Host School)
2. Ajuwon high school Ajuwon, Ogun State
3. Olambe Community High School, Ogun State

Students & Teachers Selection Criteria

Criteria for choosing students
● Only SS3 students from the shortlisted schools are eligible to participate.
● Our goal is to select students who are less privileged. We are interested in empowering and preparing such students for the tasks involved in order to increase their chance of success. This ensures that they match up with their counterparts who could otherwise afford preparatory/tutorial classes. (15 weighted points)
● Students must currently have 80% attendance rate (40 weighted points)
● Student questionnaire completed by their teachers. The questions ranges from financial hardship to students aptitude to learn. (25 weighted points)
● The last 2 semesters’(terms’) results for the interviewees will be requested from the schools will be perused by M4ONE. This will help identify students that are ready to learn and have shown great efforts in the past (10 weighted points)
● Interview will be conducted for the pre-selected students by M4ONE Nigeria Team Lead (10 weighted points)

Criteria for choosing teachers
● University degree, HND or NCE required. OND with 2-year minimum teaching experience
● Commitment to Project’s objectives and class schedules
● Demonstrate-able ability to teach a subject and motivate students.
Names of teachers: On file. Teachers were hand picked from both participating and nonparticipating schools including both public and private schools
Program Size
100 students will be chosen participate in this pilot program.
○ 60 Science Students
○ 40 Arts or Commercial Students
Subjects covered
Mathematics, English , Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Government*, Economics* , Accounting* and Literature* ( * means subject to budget)

Schedule:
● Non – Holiday Schedule (Three (3) times per week )
○ Thursday, Friday and Saturday
○ 4-6PM* (Thursday and Friday) and 12-2PM (Saturday)
○ See full timetable here
● Holiday Schedule
○ Thursday, Friday and Saturday
○ 11AM – 3PM

Attendance
All students and teachers must sign in on each day of tutoring. An attendance sheet will be created and kept by the local M4ONE Nigeria volunteer.
Monitoring
● A Millions4One volunteer must be present on each lecture day to assess the teachers, students and identify areas of improvement for the program.
● Millions4One Project team (US) and Millions4One Nigeria team will randomly call the students for feedback on the training
● Student and teachers attendance sheets will be emailed to Millions4One Project team (US) on a weekly basis if possible and monthly basis

Assessment
Three mock exams will be conducted (every 3 months) and areas of improvement will be addressed.
Waiver/Liability
Parents or Guardian of eligible students must sign a waiver form absolving Millions4One of any responsibilities.

Materials and resources
● A secure, controlled location with 5 classrooms
● 100 chairs and desks and writeable blackboard.
● A writeable blackboard or whiteboard
● Textbooks
● Past WAEC questions
● Exercise books for note-taking

Forms and Documentation
● Attendance sheet . Click here
● Waiver form/ consent letter to parents of chosen students. Click here
● Teacher Data and Agreement engagement form . Click here
● Teacher Questionnaire. Click here
● Consent letter sent to host school and LGA. Click here

Sometime in November, Millions4One project team was on the lookout for a school where they can implement one of their quarterly education support projects. The fact that there are thousands of schools whose students well deserve our support made the task more challenging.

After, a few conference calls and several calls to our volunteers in Nigeria, a school was chosen. The name of the school is Bright Elementary School. A school of 325 kids with hopes and aspirations.

Kids who, even with limited resources continue to study hard. We realized that providing these kids with exercise books and schools bags will go a long way in assisting them realize their dreams. It’s an understatement to say that the kids needed the support. We later found out the only help they had gotten in the past was 1 exercise book per student. Millions4One volunteers and donors decided to provide each student with 6 exercise books, 1 drawstring backpack, 1 pen, 1 pencil and 1 eraser. The 6 exercise books will cost us a total $1.01 if we decide to print it ourselves,less than the price of 1 bottled water at convenience store.

Date is December 11th 2010, new school year starts Jan 10th, 2011. So we have about 30 days to raise a total of $1500 needed for the project. Tick tack, the fundraising begins. One of the things we promote among the members of Millions4One is a sense of responsibility. We understand that we cannot wait until they, or that person finds a solution to a problem. We don’t just identify a problem; we strive to be an integral part of the solution. So, joined by 2 independent donors, M4One members came up with the total fund required for the project in a record 3 weeks.

With a mission on their mind and a deadline to meet, M4ONE project implementation team swung into action. Later on in December we learnt that the start of the new school year was moved to February 7th, 2011. This gave our US team and volunteers in Nigeria a little breather.

By end of the first week in January the bags were in Lagos, Nigeria; that gave us enough time to get it to Oba, Anambra State for the presentation to the kids.

By the second week in January, the bags were in Owerri, Imo State where one of our volunteers picked it up and transported it to Onitsha where the exercise books were printed. Talk about power of human network. By January 17th, all the schools supplies were in a secure location at Onitsha ready to be moved to Oba, Anambra State on February 8th – the day that we planned to present the school supplies to the students.

February 7th, 2011, we checked with our volunteers in Nigeria and they said everything was fine except that the person who was supposed to be in charge of the camera just cancelled due to a family emergency. Talk about last minute logistics challenge but we were able to get an extra hand to help with the photos.

February 8th, 2011. The exercise books, bags and other supplies were given to the students. It was priceless to see the joy on their faces.

Seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces and feeling a sense of fulfillment we say to ourselves, donors and volunteers, we have to do this again.

Together, we can replicate this effort and meet the needs of more communities in Nigeria .Help keep the dreams and aspirations of more kids alive.

Almost a year ago, an idea came and quickly I called a few of my friends and shared the idea with them. Each one of them was interested and is still interested. So we all got together, decided we are all gonna get a second job to raise money to get the organization off the ground (am just kidding, we didn’t take an extra job).

Slowly, but surely that idea is becoming a reality. In the next few weeks we will be completing our very first project in Nigeria (Yeah!!!) and right after that project we will be rolling out our website(www.something.something) ssshiiiish….I have not be authorized to give the website name…(but am sure you can figure it out..wink wink)

Trying to roll out a brand new organization and a website, I learnt that it’s really difficult to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, not an easy task at all. So we will definitely be rolling out the website right after first project in a few weeks and you can call it a beta version, if you will.

And did I mention this is my very first blog post? Yep, am very brand new here, am liking it though. Through this blog, Millions4one plans to have a close engagement with it’s donors and volunteers. Here, we plan to have a 2-way conversation, where we tell you reason behind a lotta things we do and how we do them and we definitely also want to get your brilliant ideas. We are not scared to admit we don’t know all the answers, many of the brightest ideas will come from you. So we are very much open to suggestions.

We are just getting started, we believe with your help, together we can change the world one life at time.

Image Credit: Ciril

1. REGISTER: You can join us by registering on our www.millions4one.org.
2. DONATE: You can also get involved by making a one-time or monthly recurring donation through Paypal. Any amount is greatly appreciated. In the coming months, we will be offering a way to make non-cash donations.
3. SHARE: Millions4one strongly believe in the power of everyday people coming together to make impact, hence the more people know and join millions4one, the stronger we get. Every new volunteer, every new donor brings new hope and dreams. Discuss it with your friends, tweet it, share it on Facebook. Please help us share the word.
4. VOLUNTEER: Please give your skills, time, ideas and talents. Currently, all members of staff of Millions4one are volunteers. Your talents are invaluable to us. Please visit and let us know how you may help.

Image Credit: Olive Juice

Hats off to all non-profits and foundations worldwideThat has spent over $3 Billion in the last decade in my continent, Africa providing emergency aids,digging wells, providing medications, distributing mosquito nets and building schools.

To all volunteers, who in the midst of work,school,family and business engagements still find time to lend one hour or two making the world a better place. Thank You. The world will never be the same without you.

To that young man who distributes indo-mie noodles to beggars on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria every morning on his way to work, Thank You for your thoughtfulness.

To Jorge Munoz(CNN 2009 Top 10 Hero),a New York school bus driver who has served over 70,000 meals to the homeless.

Thank You for showing that we don’t need a million bucks before we can change the world, all we need is a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love (MLK).

And To everyone who had at one time or the other poured anyone oil of kindness to reduce the friction of life.

Thank You.

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it to happen, others make it happen” – Anonymous

Thank You to Humanity’s Finest for making it happen. You are the world’s greatest.?

This blog post was written by one of  the volunteers at Millions4One.