Meet Aisha, a little charming wonder of the Fulani Ruga settlement in the Katampe area of the FCT. Aisha is a typical representation of the Fulani beauty, the richness in culture, and the love and acceptability of others. She is lively, always leaping up and down, displaying the attributes of a true queen, with the way she controlled other girls of her age. Aisha is smart, no doubt, but something was missing.
Aisha is an 11 years old girl, who at this age, is expected to have mastery of the English alphabet, numbers, colours, and common shapes. But when it came to reciting the alphabet, we saw the light in her bold and beautiful eyes diminish. The clever girl who was all about the place became sullen. We saw the shyness in her eyes, but she stood her ground and gave it her best. By jumping from A to 3 and from 2 to G, Aisha recited what she believed were the English alphabets and numbers.

The eyes, they say, are the windows to the soul. Often, we have heard this phrase, but when conversing with Aisha and other children of the settlement, we came to truly understand what it meant. With a pencil in one hand and a book on the other, Aisha was asked to redraw the shapes she saw on the paper. There were Circle, Triangle, Square, and Rectangle. Amazingly, after she had drawn the shapes, to our surprise, she drew only circles at the bottom of each shape. Through the eyes of Aisha, all she saw were circles. Why you might wonder, but the answer is simple. Throughout her 11 years on earth, she has been surrounded by circles. The traditional Fulani house is circular and their lives have never been lived outside of the little circle that makes up the only place they call home.

A Circle indeed represents the completion of cycles, movements that never end. It is said to protect against chaos, to preserve the natural order of things. The Fulanis have been living in their circles since the beginning of time, all to preserve their cultural values and its binding elements. But who says this circle cannot be expanded to include, an integration into society, with which comes the benefit of improved social amenities, a good healthcare system, and a good educational system which will raise powerful queens from kids like Aisha?

ICF desires to expand this Circle through its flagship Community Cluster Learning Model (CCLM), starting with the Fulani settlement in Katampe. Children like Aisha deserves to know that although the circle is a powerful shape, there are equally other amazing shapes out there like the rectangle which represents honesty, the squares which represent stability, and the triangle which represents strength. What happens when all these are put together? The Fulanis become a formidable force for transformation in society.

We need you to impact the lives of children like Aisha! Donations from people like you go directly to the education and transformation of girls like Aisha and the community she comes from.