It was a time of celebration, singing and dancing last week at Ewu-Elepe community, Ijede Road, Ikorodu, when the Dream Catchers Academy opened its Free Art School for Girls ultra modern school building.

The very emotional event drew dignitaries from the Lagos State government, the entertainment sector and the community.

The school a residential free arts academy dedicated to underprivileged young girls also provides a former primary and secondary education for the girls at no cost at all to the parents.

Describing the opening of the school, built in the modest Elepe community as a dream come true, its founder, Seyi Oluyole said the school started as a dance room for out of school girls, susceptible to negative vices, but has now become a former institution of learning.

Commending the founder for citing the school in their community, Mr Lasisi Kazeem, Youth Leader of the community, who representative the Bale of Ewu-Elepe, said he was excited that such a novel institution set up to provide free art education for girls, the first of its kind in the country was cited in the community, assuring that they would do everything within their powers to ensure that the property is protected.

Speaking on the challenges she faced in putting up the structure which was funded largely from personal income and support from online community, Miss Oluyole said starting was difficult as many people did not believe in the dream, even people seeking for employment with them didn’t take them serious and would not accept the job.

In an emotion laden voice, Miss Oluyole who broke down several times while reading her speech said, “At Dream Catchers Academy, we aim to support less privileged girls who have experienced homelessness, neglect, or economic hardship. We hope to transform the lives of these girls through housing opportunities, wellness and welfare resources, and access to a quality education. Moreover, we provide our girls with an introduction to the arts.

“We see the need to provide arts education not only because of its psychological benefits and economic empowerment, but also the realisation that we are all unique beings and so much of our economy is currently built on entertainment and the arts.

“By the age of twelve, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I valued dancing and the arts of film production. I wrote my own music and recognised at an early age the unique influence of those in the art and entertainment industries. Yet still, like many of the young girls currently enrolled at Dream Catchers Academy, I was living in extreme poverty.

“My parents worked tirelessly to provide for both my academic and artistic dreams. However, their efforts often fell short. From overly expensive tuition fees, homelessness, and first-hand trauma my desires of contributing to the world of slowly dissipated. By the age of twenty-one, I was blessed with the opportunity to leave Nigeria and begin anew in the United States. Over time however, I felt unfulfilled. While my own aspirations were thwarted, I believed I could create opportunities for other young girls who not only struggled in poverty as I had, but who also dreamt of life as an artist and entertainer.

“By twenty-four, I moved back to Nigeria to found the Dream Catchers Academy. My goal and the goal of our team at the academy is to counteract the detriments of growing up in the slums of Nigeria. Slum conditions are especially daunting for young girls. These environments are often laden with poverty and trauma, given that young girls here are often the targets and victims of gender-based violence.

“Moreover, many of these girls are passionate about arts. Through the Dream Catchers Academy, I strive to provide hope and opportunity for these girls to not only thrive in their wellness and education but to support their dreams of artistry.

“By 2016, I officially launched the Academy which originally started as a dance group. Starting with only five girls, I began my mission to support and provide for these young girls living in poverty who were also passionate about the arts. We have quickly grown to enroll over 30 girls. Now, with this school building we are equipped to do even more.

“And we will be enrolling a total of 100 girls. 60 at the primary school and 40 in the secondary school we will commence building on.

“Today we will be breaking ground for the home where these girls with big dreams just like I had. A place homeless young girls can call home.

“Thank you to everyone who believed in my dreams! To my parents! My older siblings! To my amazing team! The board members! The Afrodroids community and founder for their massive support and encouragement, All our Instagram followers! All our YouTube subscribers. Our twitter family!

“Everyone who has supported us – today is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives!

“A legacy that will outlive us! I am grateful to have been chosen.

“To little Seyi – the journey was worth it. If there’s anything like time travel, be patient. All the struggle has been worth it.

“To my amazing girls – you all are worth it – never forget! Don’t let anyone tell you you are less.

“And to every woman out there – looking up to me – I have one word only! Believe! Trust the process. It’s going to happen when it’s supposed to happen,” she said.

Speaking earlier, Mrs Oyeleke Titilayo, a mother to one of the girls, Busayo thanked the founder for removing tears from her eyes at a critical time when she took in her daughter.

Commending the initiative, Adetola Salau, the Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Education, saidSSA to Sanwo-Olu Education, said she was excited about what “I saw here today, anything that is focused on ensuring that our children’s dreams and hopes and ensuring that their future is exceeding any limitations, any obstacles is something I always put myself into 1000 percent.

“So my whole heart is here and the fact that this is a programme that is centered around girls and centred around arts, something that has been neglected unfortunately a lot of late, I don’t know if you are aware, a lot of schools having been cutting their art programmes, their music programmes, which I find very disturbing, because music, arts if something that brings out the humanity, the social part of us.

“So why are we cutting it out, it brings out the creative element in us, we need to be promoting it, we need to be pushing it, we need to be saying let every child be learning how to be able to express themselves, because being able to be creative and think critically all stem from arts and whenever I see programmes like this, I like to go there and encourage them and promote, that is why I am here today.

“I will advise the organisers and the children to keep up the good work, to not, to not let anything discourage them, to understand that at the end of the day, even if only one child and I know its going to be more than one child, but even if its one child benefits from this, to me that one child is worth it.

“So, they really need to keep on pushing, keep on striving, I have remarkable dreams for our children, there is so much that all of us have to push and push for those dreams to come through.”

Also speaking, Owo Anietie, Founder Afrodoid, who is also a 3D artists, the major sponsor of the project, expressed his satisfaction about the development.

He said, “Afrodroid is an NFT project, we were able to sell pictures of Internet and donated a handsome amount to DCA for this project

“My interest span more from what they are doing, helping all these children, anybody that drives on the streets of Lagos will see people begging on the streets, for me if you help one of them you are just help one, but I believe if we are helping dream catchers, we are helping more people, that is why we wanted to help and we always see them performing on Instagram and on twitter and you see how the girls dance, their dance steps and beautiful and so nice and we saw that it was a good job they were doing and we wanted people we could trust, integrity and the founder Seyi has so much integrity and prior to our donation she has been sharing information about what they have been doing and if they collect donations they share it for people to see, that is one of the reasons we wanted to support them.

“I only met her on social media, when we reached out to her at first she thought we were scammers, she was like avoiding us, my then manager was trying to reach her, sent her message on all platforms, Instagram, email, twitter, she was like who is this person disturbing my life, but eventually we were able to reach her and make her know that what we are trying to do is just support people, we don’t want money from you and she spoke to her lawyers and its was like as long as they don’t ask for money you can actually accept to do it, and until the day we donated she said she didn’t really believe to her it was like if they donate its ok, if they don’t its fine.

“Seeing what it has become today, I am very emotional, I am very happy, the community is happy because one thing we have to understand is that it is not just my money, it’s the money of the entire community backing my project, so everybody seeing the live streaming, seeing the work that is being done here, the pictures, the videos ad all that, we are all emotional, we are happy, if you go online and read the comments, everybody is so emotional about it, I am super excited honestly, it’s a great day,” he added.

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