EMPOWERMENT
Rural communities are often confronted with challenges beyond their control. Food insecurity, climate change, insufficient power supply, clean water, or access to basic health care.
Constrained by major obstacles such as language barriers, limited resources, illiteracy, and oppressive cultural factors, it can be difficult to access opportunities. Our volunteers are residents of the communities they approach. They are trained to approach each challenge with open minds to learn from their community members and create evidence-based solutions that resonate with the community’s needs. At ICON, an Empowerment program is a collaborative process between the volunteers and their communities.
EDUCATION
Our educational programs advocate for (not just education) but quality education for rural children, especially young girls who are influenced into early marriages or denied fundamental human rights. Our targets are a combination of classroom and out-of-school children because oftentimes, the most vulnerable ones don’t have access to classrooms. We implement an educational module that promotes cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral self-expression.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
We design and implement business workshops for women from diverse underrepresented and marginalized communities. Our programs utilize community resources to inspire business products and ensure financial independence for beneficiaries.
ENGAGEMENT
Our annual Art and Cultural projects (Ibom International Art and Book Festival and Authors Talk are the founder’s brainchild, mostly focused on providing opportunities for emerging and widely marginalized writers and artists in marginalized communities.
ANNUAL ART AND CULTURAL PROGRAMS
Author’s Talk
Lagos Author’s Talk is an annual signature event that gathers emerging writers and established authors on a roundtable to discuss the craft of writing, publishing, and other topics related to creative writing and writers. This one-day event aims to uplift and promote emerging writers, provide opportunities to utilize their writing skills, and foster an expansion of the network of writers and publishers from Lagos city.
IBOM International Arts and Book Festival
Everyone has a story. The story can be expressed through a narrative or an artistic series of expressions. The story can be reflective of multiple coexisting identities, cultural values, and historical occurrences. Most importantly, the story should be offered an equal opportunity for recognition. Our International Art and Book Festival was created to respond to this dire need of identifying, celebrating, and highlighting the literary and artistic creative works of minority
writers and artists. The festival subsequently navigates major cities in the US and Uyo Nigeria annually, bringing more than 2000-3000 participants to a selected city.