“When I was the age of this boy, my father had a stroke. My...

“When I was the age of this boy, my father had a stroke.  My family used all our savings to take care of him.  And after we’d spent everything, my father gave up the ghost.  We were left in a desperate situation.  There was no money left.  There were six of us living in a single room.  I was only in 5th grade, but I had to go to work.  I carried oranges on my head and sold them in the street.  Then one day I met the owner of a print shop.  He was a friend of my brother.  He fed me every afternoon, and he began to teach me his profession.  He told me: ‘Never view yourself as having nothing.’  And he showed me that I could change my life with skills alone.  Now I have my own shop.  And anyone who has an interest, I will teach them.  I’ve taught fourteen boys already.  This boy has stopped going to school.  But we can’t allow him to be idle.  We must keep him busy because there’s criminality all around us.  Every day we see drug dealers walk by.  I point to them and I ask: ‘Do you want to be like them?  Or do you want to be like me?’”
(Lagos, Nigeria)