Low, heavy clouds pressed over the sky threatening to turn the already damp red earth from previous downpours in the mega internally...
Low, heavy clouds pressed over the sky threatening to turn the already damp red earth from previous downpours to thick mud. As the low growls of thunder rumbled, 14-year-old Terkula Bemdoo hurried toward a bright blue container stationed proudly in front of the temporary tarpaulin shelters that littered the mega internally displaced persons camp at the Mbayongo community in Benue’s Guma LGA.
The only memory of school the 14-year-old had was that it “was so bad”. Benjamin Prosper, Bemdoo’s 15-year-old friend, recalled having to sit on mats to write.But SchoolBox, the containers, opened a new world to the young boys. The blue walls of the 40ft container came alive with murals — painted patterns winding like ribbons and silhouettes of children nursing their dreams in defiant, blues, reds, and yellows — softening the steel.
SchoolBox was developed to address this challenge by supporting Nigeria’s formal education system particularly in IDP camps and regions affected by insecurity or temporary school closures.Each SchoolBox is a recycled and repurposed shipping container, transformed into a safe, solar-powered and fully functional classroom, ICT lab or water, sanitation and hygiene facility.
On a deployment level, Obiwulu said The Offshore Lab partnered with the State Universal Education Board and the state ministry of education to identify a nearby school and act as its proxy by offering teacher-training and exchange programmes between the school and the camp, as well as curriculum integration.Quarterly and monthly, an external supervisor from The Offshore Lab assesses the progress.
He told TheCable the company is working on a batch of 10 more containers that would serve as an ICT lab for an orphanage in the Niger Delta.
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