About
REIWA was registered with the Nigerian government’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC 21770) in 2006. Core staff worked for several years in Cross River state with a close partner Development in Nigeria (DIN), a forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods NGO. Working with partners including DIN, REIWA seeks to make a difference to the poorest of rural poor, notably migratory groups and landless farmer youth, in four states. These are Bauchi, Cross River, Katsina and Taraba.
Reiwa’s focus on education for empowerment is driven by the supreme importance of educating all Nigerians for sustainable development in the twenty-first century. Only twenty four percent (24%) of children in some northern states are enrolled in school; of pastoralists zero to two percent (2%) are functionally literate. Rural primary and secondary schools lack text books, paper-based learning materials and infrustructure.
The Nigerian government is putting in place important reforms. These reflect the need to empower teachers and children to make use of educational materials on the Internet to compensate for the dearth of books. It also reflects the need to target senior primary school children for training in basic computing and use of the Internet, so as to motivate them to want to continue with their education at junior secondary level, and not to drop out. Most Nigerian children are not being educated for life in the twenty-first century, neither are many teachers.
Crossing the digital divide is the way forward.
