Young Leaders Academy

Young Leaders Academy(creche, pre-primary and primary school)
This is a free school for children living in the slum. This project was established to help children who do not have access or means to acquire education.

Spaces for Change Trains RUDI Staff on Blogging

On November 12, 2015, RUDI's Secretary, Blessing Izobo received training at Spaces for Change's office on basic blogging techniques. Through this training, RUDI will be able to documents its work more effectively and tell its stories more powerfully to human rights stakeholders and advocates around the world.  We want to show to the public what RUDI is doing, and in the process, increase our network of supporters and collaborators. 

Many members of our communities do not have access to public institutions and their voices cannot be heard. This blog will enable us to tell their stories and invite strategic ideas and action that address the precarious conditions in which the urban poor live. 

RUDI: Empowering Communities for Development

Rural and Urban Development Initiative is a movement of urban poor communities in Lagos working together for dignity and development.  We have 74 member communities from different parts of Lagos such as Ikorodu, Badagry, Lekki, Victoria Island, Lagos Mainland, CMS etc. 

We provide many services to our members such as the provision of non-interest loans. Our members have come together to form savings groups and this is the vehicle we use to administer and disburse loans to community members. 

We conduct sensitization on human rights issues affecting our community members such as forced evictions, domestic violence tenancy and landlord disputes, land disputes among members. Some of the cases that we cannot handle are usually referred to public institutions and other non-governmental organizations like Spaces for Change which has been rendering free legal services to members of our community. 

We show solidarity with other slum communities and urban poor dwellers in other states that are facing the kind of urban problems that we experience. 

We have partnering with Ifesowapo, an intiative of Spaces for Change, to campaign against youth violence and recurrent street violence in Lagos Mainland. 

We have also partnered with Society for Love and Social Justice (SLSJ) to provide free medical services to old people and children in slums communities.

We have also established a school - Young Leaders Academy - through which we are expanding the access of children of school age to basic primary education. We provide these kids with free books for learning. 

Local youth enrol in our business center where we equip them with basic computer skills.