Health Clinic Jeida is a small village in Kuje local government Area in the South Eastern part of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. Our work in this village began in 2013 and has evolved to take various forms. It began with the idea of a health clinic to meet the primary health care needs of the community, given that there was non-existent at this time. Since then friends from across the world have partnered with us in raising over $50,000 for the establishment of the clinic which was completed in November 2015 and opened on September 1st 2016. The clinic continues to serve the primary care needs of the community, including the obstetrical needs of the women of child bearing age. Children are born in the facility regularly. The bedrock of its operation involves the use of community health workers. As opposed to waiting for people to present with the clinic. Our health workers preemptively make regular health maintenance visits to the homes in the community to provide education on preventive care.
Nursery and Elementary School To meet the educational needs of the children in the community, we helped establish an elementary school in the community. We have classes from nursery school to the 6th grade. All our students who graduated have gained admission to secondary school. Some have gained scholarships to private boarding schools. We currently have about 89 children enrolled in the school.
Local Business At Crossbonds, we believe that everyone has something to offer regardless of economic standing. Thus, we strive to facilitate a culture of self-sufficiency wherein we equip our friends in these communities with what is needed for them to be able to use their gifts to make a living for themselves. We strongly discourage an attitude of perpetual dependence. We want the communities’ members to be the drivers of the development in their communities and this involves financial independence. To this end, we helped establish local businesses completely run by the community members to provide opportunities for employment. The funds realized from the businesses are also used to run the clinic and the school. So far, we have established 2 business: A poultry farm containing about 1000 birds (broiler and layers) and some catfish ponds where we raise about 18,000 catfish. The eggs from the layers, the broilers and the fish are sold to local restaurants and boarding schools in the city and the revenue helps fund the clinic and the school.
School-Sponsorship One very easy and sustainable way to invest in communities is to put kids in school. Getting the children off the streets puts them in a better position to contribute meaningfully to their communities. We have found this need for school sponsorship to be a very low-hanging fruit. On average it costs about 30,000 Naira (or about $67) to pay the tuition of a child in public school in Nigeria, for an academic year. Through various partnerships, we have been able to send about 30 children to school within the 2 years. We are also involved in a larger national effort to send kids to school through a robust partnership with Young Shapers Club - another Nigerian-based nonprofit whose primary focus is on sending kids to school. Our founder, Kelechi sits on the board of this organization.