How Our 2024 Education Drive Reached 2,000 Children Across Five States

When we launched our School-in-a-Box initiative in 2022 with just three pilot communities in Kogi State, we could not have imagined that two years later we would be unpacking those same boxes in classrooms across five states, touching the lives of over 2,000 children who had never owned a brand-new textbook.

What Is School-in-a-Box?

School-in-a-Box is our flagship education intervention. Each box contains 30 complete sets of age-appropriate textbooks and exercise books, a set of classroom furniture (desks and chairs), a teacher's resource kit, and basic sanitation supplies for the school. The boxes are designed to equip an entire classroom at once, rather than giving individual supply packs that can be lost or traded.

Alongside the physical materials, each school receives a two-day teacher training workshop delivered by our certified education facilitators. We also enrol each participating school in our 6-month mentorship programme, where we make quarterly visits to check progress and provide additional support.

This Year's Expansion

The 2024 drive added Benue, Anambra, Enugu, and Rivers states to our existing presence in Kogi. In each state, we partnered with the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to identify the most under-resourced primary schools, prioritising communities more than 10km from the nearest urban centre.

• Kogi State: 14 schools, 420 children, 28 teachers trained
• Benue State: 12 schools, 380 children, 24 teachers trained
• Anambra State: 10 schools, 310 children, 20 teachers trained
• Enugu State: 9 schools, 290 children, 18 teachers trained
• Rivers State: 8 schools, 240 children, 16 teachers trained

In total, we equipped 53 schools, placed 1,640 sets of furniture, and delivered 50,000 textbooks and exercise books. Our team of 34 volunteer educators ran teacher training workshops over three consecutive weekends in each state.

"When the boxes arrived, the children ran to help carry them into the classroom. They had never seen new books before — some were afraid to write in them at first because they did not want to spoil them. That broke my heart, and it showed me exactly why this work matters." — Ngozi, volunteer teacher trainer, Enugu State

What We Learned

Three years of running this programme have taught us a great deal. The physical materials matter enormously, but teacher confidence matters just as much. In communities where teachers felt supported and equipped, student attendance increased within weeks — not because children were forced to come, but because school suddenly felt like a place worth being.

We also learned that community ownership is critical. Schools where the local PTA was involved in receiving and distributing materials reported far fewer incidents of theft or misuse. Next year, we plan to formalise community stewardship committees as a standard part of every school-in-a-box deployment.

Key Findings

• Average school attendance rose by 34% in the first term after receiving materials
• 92% of trained teachers reported feeling more confident in lesson delivery
• 74% of schools retained all materials after six months (up from 61% in 2023)
• Student literacy assessment scores improved by an average of 18 percentile points

What's Next

In 2025, we are targeting seven states — adding Niger, Sokoto, and Cross River to our current five. We are also introducing a digital literacy component: a solar-powered tablet loaded with offline educational content will accompany every school-in-a-box deployed in a school with electricity access.

None of this is possible without our donors, volunteers, and partners. If you would like to sponsor a School-in-a-Box (₦85,000 equips one full classroom), please visit our donate page. If you would like to volunteer as a teacher trainer, we would love to hear from you.