:Title:    The Butterfly Project
:Author:   Ben Parkinson
:Date:     Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:22:16 PST
:URL:      http://www.ned.com/group/nigeria/news/2/

This is a project, which we are developing here in Kaduna State, although we have yet to secure funding for it.  We are working on some initial research in the field and the objective with this thread is to gain some quality feedback on the idea, the methodology and the projected impact.

Firstly one has to start with the view that social entrepreneurs are people who are beneficial to disadvantaged society, perhaps, on average, substantially more beneficial.  Thus the objective of the project is to encourage and create many social entrepreneurs in an area affected by substantial poverty.

In Kaduna state, Nigeria, 50% of children do not attend school, or at the very least have dropped out.  Most of these spend their time either begging in towns or selling farm produce that they have gathered.  it is a reasonable assumption that these 50% are equally as bright as those who are attending school.  Since those who are gifted and/or talented are likely to underachieve or reject school, it is likely that this group also includes an equivalent number of gifted and talented children.

Most, but not all of these children live in rural areas, where schools are striving, mostly unsuccessfully, to provide suitable education and suffer from a lack of qualified teachers and resources.  20% of rural children are also dying before they reach age 10, due to lack of medical facilities.

Imagine if, from this group, you could find those children who have the most suitable characteristics to become social entrepreneurs - the Ashoka Fellows of this world - and then you provided them with all the support that could be mustered for them to achieve this potential, or indeed another, should this be more suitable.  They would become people with the knowledge of how best to tackle social issues, but from a rural standpoint and with a passion to work in the hard to negotiate rural settings.

The Butterfly Project aims to take 48 gifted and talented young people, aged 7-15, from these rural areas, provide them with wireless internet access, mentoring from Ashoka social entrepreneurs, pairing with US counterparts through email contact, gather them together quarterly for activity weeks, support them in developing their own social projects, offer internet chats in which they can participate, provide English language tuition, if needed and encourage them to develop their IT skills, through the Virtual Africa project (to come).

Selection processes are to be tested next week, when 3 girls and 3 boys from rural environments have been chosen to participate in a special fun day, where they can enjoy a bit of luxury, but also find out their aptitudes in a variety of areas.  We will be testing our selection methodologies, which we are striving to ensure will not favour those who have been educated.  Two of the participants are several years behind at school, to to lack of appropriate schooling, but my belief is that they may actually be more intelligent than average. 

If funding can be acquired for the project, then this selection methodology will be used statewide, by working with the Chiefs and Emirs to set up testing days in their locales, where young gifted and talented people are encouraged to participate.

If the project is successful we may be able to provide an injection of highly capable people into rural areas, who can be changemakers and perhaps ultimately Ashoka Fellows, or the equivalents.