GESA, KAIJER Unveil ‘Bridge the Gap’ Initiative to Support Vulnerable Children in School
By Genesis Ogiri
ABUJA — The GESA Initiative and KAIJER Youth Empowerment Initiative have unveiled Project Bridge the Gap, a community-centred educational intervention conceived to strengthen access, retention and continuity in basic education for vulnerable children facing socioeconomic and structural barriers to schooling.
The initiative was unveiled during a stakeholders’ engagement at Junior Secondary School, Peyi, Bwari Area Council, Federal Capital Territory, which convened representatives of government education agencies, school authorities, parents, traditional and religious institutions, development partners, civil society organisations, private-sector stakeholders, teachers and the media around the imperative of safeguarding inclusive and equitable educational opportunities.
Delivering the keynote address,
Executive Director of GESA Initiative, Cynthia Ifueko Obazee, said the intervention was designed against the backdrop of persistent socioeconomic vulnerabilities that continue to undermine educational participation among disadvantaged children, stressing that the realisation of a child’s educational potential should not be circumscribed by poverty, family circumstances or other conditions beyond the child’s control.
Obazee identified poverty, hunger, geographical distance, gender-related barriers, disability and crises among the factors capable of precipitating educational exclusion and premature disengagement. She advocated a paradigm shift from an enrolment-centric approach to a more comprehensive retention framework capable of addressing the socioeconomic determinants that influence whether vulnerable children remain in school and successfully complete their foundational education.
She said girls, children living with disabilities, orphans and children from low-income households require targeted interventions, institutional safeguards and sustained community support. According to her, the creation of safe, inclusive and enabling learning environments is indispensable to preventing vulnerable children from falling through the cracks of the education system and ensuring that their formative years translate into meaningful human-capital outcomes.
The GESA executive director
called for strengthened policy implementation, increased budgetary prioritisation and enhanced technical support for inclusive education, while urging school authorities, parents, School-Based Management Committees, traditional and religious leaders, development partners and communities to embrace a coordinated model of responsibility in protecting every child’s right to education.
Obazee disclosed that GESA Initiative, through its SCARTIP ongoing project, would collaborate with KAIJER Youth Empowerment Initiative to deepen the sustainability architecture of Project Bridge the Gap. She said the partnership would support the establishment of income-generating school-garden farming activities within the school premises, with proceeds intended to contribute to the sustained provision of essential school supplies for vulnerable pupils and students.
She further disclosed that mothers of vulnerable children would be supported through livelihood-oriented capacity-building in business and trading activities, including poultry opportunities, as part of a broader household economic-resilience strategy. Obazee explained that strengthening the productive capacity of families could help mitigate economic pressures that sometimes compel children into street hawking and other activities that interfere with regular school attendance.
She commended KAIJER Youth Empowerment Initiative for advancing the project and called for broader institutional, corporate and community investment in similar grassroots education interventions. She stressed that the enduring success of Project Bridge the Gap would ultimately depend on a sustained ecosystem of collaboration among families, schools, government, communities and development actors, ensuring that vulnerable children are not merely enrolled but are adequately supported to remain in school, complete their education and translate learning into productive and dignified futures.
