LINDYS GEMS FOUNDATION-PLAYFULLY IMPACTING LIVES..

Eme Aderinokun










Lindy’s Gems in the Rough Foundation was birthed to address the social development needs of children in orphanages making use
of fun as a platform to get both children from orphanages and
privileged children in the same environment with no bias to status. This Foundation recognizes the importance of play in the healthy
development of every child. A fact well recognized by the United Nations
Commission for Human Rights as the right of every child.




“Gems in the Rough” are children in various homes - orphanages,
institutions etc –precious stones of inestimable value surrounded by
rare conditions who ordinarily would not have access to fun ,
which is why  its vision is to build self motivated, balanced and confident children using FUN as a balance into the lives of these
GEMS. Its programs are designed on the platform of fun and mentorship,
with the aim of giving the children cherished childhood memories.

Lindy's Gems in the Rough has been designed to hold every year. Its last outing held on the 20th October 2012.



Eme Aderinokun, is passionate about affecting the lives of children through the instrumentality of play. She is the CEO of Lindy's Events, a Corporate events & Amusement provider company which she founded after 9years as a banker with UBA, Continental Trust, and GTB. She exited the bank in 2005, to flow with the vision for children, which had been burning in her heart. The years spent in the banking profession, coupled with her experience as a volunteer worker in the House On The Rock church, Lagos, prepared and trained her for what she is currently engaged in.   As she shared her vision for children, with me, her passion shone through her words and gestures.


 Q. Your Bio.



A. Eme James
Aderinokun is a product of the mercy of God. I am very optimistic in my
views, a faith person, a happy, smiley person, an imperfect person
aiming for perfection in a system where all hope seems to be lost if u
get what I mean lol... I've been married to
Segun for almost 8 years and we are blessed with 3 children 1girl and
2boys.   I have a 1st degree in Sociology from
University of Lagos, a Diploma in Marketing and an MBA both from the
University of Nsukka.             



Q. About Lindy's .



A. Lindy's
Gems Foundation is a CSR platform of Lindy's Events. The idea came as a
need to give back. My first passion is children, so it was natural
to choose that area to give back. The name Lindy's is from the company; Gems in the Rough is our
operative name. A team member at the time we started, helped put it together after we had
narrowed down our options  to the area we wanted to make a difference and identified the
type of children we wanted to impact. Gems are precious stones, but when
found in their rough state, they could be undervalued. Some work has to go
into them to get their value or worth, hence, our name.  LGF is all about instilling leadership qualities in all children especially less
privileged children riding on play as a platform to reach the children.
We do not believe leadership is just for privileged kids hence our
vision- to bridge the gap between the privileged and the less
privileged.  We mold and build the confidence of our children through
fun(our fun days) and mentorship.





Q. Impact created/success stories.

A.  Through
the Foundation's activities, we have given the children memorable
experiences, hope, exposure, and friendly alliances with other children. We
have embolden our children and challenged them to think out of their
various environments. We took 25 children to Calabar carnival
for 6 days in December, 2011. I remember what some of them said to me while we
were at Tinapa  that, “this is the best Christmas we have ever had, thank you
Aunty Eme for bringing us here”. The feedback we get from the
Orphanages and parents who are involved, is quite encouraging.



Q. Plaguing challenges.



 A. There's the problem of support
and buy in from corporate organizations. Our programs which currently include,
our annual fun day in October and general visits to Orphanages and
schools rely 100% on sponsorship. To a large extent, we have been blessed
to have the support that has allowed us stage 4 fun days so far, but it
has been hard. Its tough getting the buy in of Corporate organizations to understand
and support our chosen medium of communicating with the children - Play.
The importance of play in the life of a child cannot be over emphasized.
Play is the balance every child needs. Financial support has been a challenge, its
difficult and tough. We are hoping for partners who believe in our cause
and adopt our programs as one of their yearly activities, which they
include in their budgets. That would reduce drastically our sponsorship
pressures.







Another
challenge is getting the buy in of some schools to come on our program.
Some schools have expressed concerns about their children mixing with
our children from the orphanages and homes. Some concerns genuine, some
exaggerated. A major challenge for these schools include convincing
parents to allow their children participate.