




University of Benin | Benin City, Nigeria | Advancing SDG 4 & UNAI 3


" It has been my dream to be a part of an international organization that is involved in developing young minds to achieve great things. I am excited to be a Millennium Fellow because it is a great opportunity for me to enhance my leadership skills as well as the vast network that this fellowship offers, such as being able to learn from and interact with different people of the same agenda. "

Millennium Fellowship Project: Living With Purpose

Living with purpose is a project that is aimed at promoting sustainable development goals 4 and 10 which are quality education and reduced inequalities. The project is focused on children in the orphanage and inmates in the prison. It aimed to promote the educational activities of the children in the orphanage and also, to reduce inferiority complex in the lives of both the inmates and the children. The reason being that these group of people usually have low self-esteem issues, most of them feel like they do not belong, they feel abandoned and less loved.
The activities carried out during the project were the provision of educational materials for the children in the orphanage in order aid their academic activities and also career session was organized for these children and inmates in the prison to enlighten these ones about what they can do or be to live a meaningful life. Reduced inequality was promoted by educating the children and inmates about life, they were given a lesson on self-worth and how to boost their self-esteem. This was because most of them do not think that they belong due to the situations they found themselves and their background, so we had to boost their self-confidence by letting them know that they are important and that they have every tendency to dream big, achieve great things and also impact their community, we also cited examples of people that have gone through their current situations and how they triumph at the end.
A platform was set up which was an interactive session where the inmates were given the opportunity to express themselves and to enlighten us about their view of life, what they expect to experience when they are finally free and what were their future goals and how they planned on actualising it. We also had a question and answer session with the inmates where the inmates were asked questions about what they had learned and how they planned on putting the things they have learned to action.

About the Millennium Fellow

Ediku Precious Osaruese is a final year student studying pharmacy at the University of Benin in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Osaruese currently serves as a member of Hospital, Orphanage and Prison Outreach. She is passionate about volunteering and promoting some of the united nation sustainable development goals. Her desire is to be surrounded by the laughter and harmony that comes from the people whose lives she is imparting and to be of help to as many persons she encounters.