UK based Kasi Usani’s ASPIRE Educational Foundation, recently provided support to 32 beneficiaries in his native Ugep, Yakurr LGA, Cross River State, to help build capacity and inspire them to greater achievements beyond their basic educational qualifications. At the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, shortly before he flew out of the country to his base in the UK, www.calitown.com had a short conversation with him.
For the benefit of our audience, please introduce yourself and walk us through your educational qualifications, work and work related experiences.
My name is Kasi Usani. I am a Safety & Risk Engineering consultant in the energy industry, currently based in the UK. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) and a Master’s degree in Safety Engineering, Reliability & Risk Management from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
I am a Charted Engineer (CEng) with the Engineering Council, UK, and a member of the Safety & Reliability Society, SaRS, where I sit on the Engineering Membership Committee which is responsible for the registration of engineers as chartered engineers through SaRS.
I also sit on the Executive Board of the Association for Black & Ethnic-Minority Engrs (AFBE-UK).
The ASPIRE Educational Foundation…what is it all about and what has driven this vision?
I set up the ASPIRE Educational Foundation as my modest way of helping to uplift the youths in our communities, particularly the less privileged, so that they can express and achieve their innate potentials, through either an academic or vocational skills route. The intention is to provide scholarships/bursaries to selected beneficiaries in three categories: Secondary Schools, Tertiary Institutions and Vocational Skills Acquisition. Beyond this, the Foundation aims to provide other forms of support to help build capacity and inspire the youths to greater achievement beyond their basic educational qualifications. The vision was driven by my desire to see more of our youths break out of the vicious cycle of unemployment and poverty which I believe is caused by poor education and a lack of guidance/mentorship as well as insufficient role models in our communities.
The foundation recently hosted an event in Ugep, your hometown, let us into that event please.
Yes, we held the induction ceremony for the first batch of beneficiaries on April 1st, 2023. The purpose was for me to formally present the various scholarship awards to the beneficiaries and to explain the fundamental aims and objectives of the foundation to them. The main feature of the event was a presentation in which I took the beneficiaries through my own life/ career journey, which was aimed at inspiring them to what is possible to achieve through hard work and a sense of purpose even in the face of similar challenges to what they are experiencing. The presentation also explained the core values of the foundation (embedded in the acronym ASPIRE) which the beneficiaries will be encouraged to imbibe and to demonstrate to help them achieve lasting success in their endeavours.
Remarkably, there were expressions of support for the initiative from the Paramount Ruler of Yakurr and Obol Lopon of Ugep, HRM Obol Ofem Ubana Eteng, as well as the Yakurr LG chairman and others who were in attendance.
For the beneficiaries, what was the criteria for selection and was the selection process an open one?
The main criteria for selection of beneficiaries were: academic performance and evidence (confirmed through background checks) of personal funding constraints. For the secondary schools category the exercise was carried out in consultation with the heads of all the secondary schools in Ugep Urban. For the tertiary institutions category the selection was carried out via the Ugep Students Association covering the tertiary institutions in Cross River State and beyond. Selection for the vocational skills category was carried out by contacting youth leaders who nominated suitable candidates, who were then interviewed to verify their background(s) and interest in their chosen vocations.
You also made a slide presentation at the event, can you compress for us here, what was contained in that presentation?
The slide presentation basically covered key topics: My journey from where I came from to where I am today, the objectives of ASPIRE Foundation and then the Core Values of ASPIRE Foundation.
Considering the enormity of your plans, how do you intend to raise funds and sustain this dream.
Thank you. This initial round of scholarships (for 32 beneficiaries) is being funded by myself, however the foundation aims to take on more beneficiaries every other year and expand the catchment area beyond Ugep urban to the rest of Cross River State and beyond, and even increase the amount of financial support over time. This would indeed be a daunting financial undertaking. The intention is therefore to contact various corporate organisations and well placed individuals, both in Nigeria and the UK where I’m based, to make contributions to the foundation. Contributions could either be direct financial support or sponsorship of some of the events that we plan to organise in furtherance of our capacity building objectives for the beneficiaries.
You travelled all the way from the UK to Nigeria for the first in a series of events the foundation will be rolling out. Do you attach that kind of importance to this dream?
Yes I certainly do. As a long standing member of AFBE-UK, I have been involved in similar initiatives/activities for young people, from primary school through university level as well as post-university graduates, and have been a mentor to various younger engineers. I felt that if I have done this for people who are relatively well placed, then how much more impactful would this be for youths in our own communities in Nigeria whose aspirations are limited due to a clear lack of opportunities and awareness of what they can achieve, with the right guidance and mentorship.
Are you singlehandedly running the foundation?
No I’m not running the foundation single-handedly; we have an Executive Director who superintends over the day-to-day operations of the foundation. For example the beneficiary selection exercise was carried out by the ED with the help of a few other ad-hoc staff, with hardly any involvement by myself.
How will you want the foundation’s track record to look like, a couple of years from now?
In a few years from now I would expect ASPIRE Foundation to be a house-hold name in Cross River State, with elegible persons eagerly looking forward to being selected into the scheme and/ or anticipating the next schools based event that the foundation will be organising. I would also expect the foundation to have had a pool of corporate sponsors/partners and contributors that would help to ‘oil the wheels’ of our operations.
Is there a mechanism(s) in place monitor and evaluate beneficiaries?
Yes there are. Once the beneficiaries have settled into the scheme the ED, with the help of the Foundation’s ad-hoc staff will be carrying out periodic checks at their various institutions or apprenticeship locations and requesting evaluation reports from their school heads and Masters, respectively. In any case the yearly renewal of the scholarship offer will be based on the beneficiaries meeting certain criteria which have been spelt out in each of their offer letters.
What broad message will you want to pass across using this platform?
My key message (to our youths in particular) would be that, it is possible to break out of the cycle of poverty and unemployment that currently afflicts us if we actively seek to acquire knowledge and skills and heightened awareness of the developments in the world beyond our immediate environment. This would open our eyes to what is possible and hence the opportunities that may currently seem beyond our reach.
ASPIRE Educational Foundation aims to help clear the cobwebs and open these windows into what can be achieved with the right training and attitude. Our motto after all is: ‘’Knowledge is power, Skill is wealth’’!
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