She will pass for any ordinary student, oluwatimilehin, 2,1 from a family of several children born and raised in the city of ijebu ode in the heart of ijebu land, crossed my path in may of this year when she paraded 20 orphaned children she has devoted the last 2 years to cater for, at a leadership training event.
I caught up with her recently (10/10/2006) in her room on campus and here are excerpts from a moving, very emotional interview:
Me: where are the kids?
Timi: the kids are refugees who had lost their parents in the librarian war and putting up with the camp pastor at the Oru refugee camp.At the moment the camp pastor provides them shelter while I clothe and feed them
Me: what do you do?
Timi: am a student in the dept. of Botany, Faculty of science Olabisi Onabanjo universityAm in 400level and working on my final year project and seminar as well as my final exams.
Me: So how do fund all of this?
Timi: Oh my pocket money and gifts from friends
Me: For how long have you done this?
Timi: Since 200level,that is sometimes in 2004
Me:So how large is your pocket money?
Timi: (smiles)…N3,000
Me: Ah?
Timi: Yeah my parents aint millonaires and they infact had to increase it to that amount when they got wind of my vision.
Though it was not easy at first mummy complained initially but became supportive along the line
Me: What do your parents do?
Timi: My father retired from the civil service a couple of years back…
Me: And now lives on pension?
Timi:…no,not really,he has a small building materials concern and mummy is a small scale poultry and fish farmer.
Me: So how do you live on 3,000 monthly?
Timi: I spend all the money less my tithe on the children.
I live close to school so I trek to class daily, I share food stuffs with my roommate and I keep a low profile and am not extremely fashion conscious so I don’t really spend money on clothes and other fashion trappings.
I spend my pocket money and gifts from my few friends who know am doing this to get food stuffs(tubers of yam, garri, beans, rice), stationeries ( exercise books, pencils and biros) and cloths for the children though most times I get old clothes from people…
Me: So what does your typical day look like?
Timi: I attend my classes which usually are between 8:00am and 1:00pm daily, rest between one and 3:00pm or work on school assignments within that time frame then I go to see the children at the camp and spend between 4:00pm and say 7:00pm.
Me: You go see the kids daily?
Timi: Yeah…everyday.
I really want them to feel loved and cared for so I hang out with them helping the with home work, teach the to do their laundry, cook their meals with them…you know korede everything their parents would have normally done for them were they alive
Me: Timi what gives you the push?
Timi: (Smiles) I just cant stand seeing children suffer especially when it can be helped.
So am helping those I can and hope to do more in the future… I will also suggest other people do stuffs like this for kids.
Me: So after school what next?
Timi: I have volunteered to work with a catholic mission working to improve the living condition of children in a particular village on the outskirts of ijebu ode in ogun state
Me: What’s the pay like?
Timi: I volunteered so I don’t expect any pay but will accept anything offered by the mission to cover basic costs like transport, accommodation., ….
Me: Do you plan having a facility of your own…?
Later! not now… I don’t have means to support such, besides I will like to learn all I can about social services like this, settle down and raise a family before commitiing TOTALLY to the cause so for now its’going to be just what I do.
Me:Have you been on any Show…TV,radio, campus…to show the world what you are doing?
That is not the purpose. It is all about making the children happy and not about…. (rave reviews)…though I had to be part of cornerstones programme earlier this year but it had never been for the show. It is all about (sevice)
Me:Timi you are doig this generation proud and am going to spread the news of what you are doing.
Thank you korede
Hope to see more of you
Me:Thank you for your time.
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