Former Governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West, Rochas Okorocha, has launched the Teach a Child/Sponsor a Child Project (TAC-SAC) aimed at bringing one million out-of-school children back to school.
Okorocha, who is the founder of the Rochas Foundation, while speaking at the unveiling of the project in Abuja, said there can’t be a new Africa if education takes the backstage.
The former governor noted that the country owed a responsibility to give every Nigerian child the right education for their liberation.
“In Africa, we have over 50 million out-of-school children and Nigeria has 13.5 million out of this figure.
“With over 200 million people in Nigeria, if we have one million people who can actually teach or sponsor a child, with each one taking say 20 children, that will be removing 20 million children out of the street,” he said.
While noting that Nigerian politicians have built political parties, hotels, churches and mosques but have not built factories that manufacture dreams and aspirations, Okorocha said the project would be a volunteering and mentorship programme that would take all out-of-school children into school by 2050.
Also speaking, the Director-General of the foundation, Uchechi Rochas Okorocha, said the foundation had opened the portal for scholarships for 5,000 children across Nigeria.
She said unveiling of the TAC-SAC project was to get more people excited about education and a call to involve more youths and children to go to the rural areas to teach and if they can’t teach, to sponsor a child.