This archive report was first published on 17 July 2020.
Man who gave up being doctor, banker builds virtual class for 948 kids ¶
July 13, 2020, marked a significant day for Otto Orondaam, a 32-year-old Nigerian social entrepreneur, as he announced the launch of a virtual learning classroom that would help kids access education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Orondaam, the founder of Slum2School, a volunteer-driven social development organization, aims to reach 10,000 kids with this initiative.
Speaking to Forbes Africa in 2018, Orondaam revealed that he founded his organization through his passion for education, especially for vulnerable and underprivileged children in 2012.
However, the idea to develop virtual learning came in May 2020, when he saw thousands of kids from the informal sector were not learning and many were engaged in various illegal activities.
Orondaam noted that his organization failed several times before they could get 108 children to learn on their tablets and 840 other kids to have over 30 community teachers.
The teachers and students are connected through laptops engaging them in cluster learning, but the organization still has thousands of children to reach.
Orondaam's team spent months mitigating all the risks to ensure that even children from low-income communities are not left out at this time.
He noted that the entire team at the organization spent days and nights cracking codes even when funding became a challenge.
Organizations like ESPN, Alitheia Capital, and Microsoft came on board to support even when the project was still an unimaginable idea.
Microsoft Africa team gave them 1 million free Microsoft Office 365 licenses for the program, which they were wowed by.
Since starting Slum2School Africa, the organization has won over 15 national awards and gained around 5,000 volunteers.
For Otto, that vision has been years in the making – and a journey that has been an emotional rollercoaster.
He quit a well-paid banking job to pursue his passion, without pay.
Orondaam realized there were a lot of issues affecting them, and he did not feel comfortable seeing and complaining about those realities without doing anything about it.
