We help to take girls off the streets – Nike Okundaye

Nike Davis-Okundaye, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nike Centre for Art and Culture, says that her centres located in Osogbo, Abuja and Lagos have helped to rehabilitate and empowered several street girls in recent years.

Davis-Okundaye told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday that the centers trained such girls in art works that brought positive changed to their lives.

She said that the girls who were formerly prostitutes were among the over 6,000 young Nigerians and foreigners that had been trained by her centers in various vocations.

She said that those that had passed through her centres were earning decent living through their productions.

Davis–Okundaye added that many African countries now send students from their institutions to study textile art at her centres.

“The centres also admit undergraduate students from many Nigerian universities for their industrial training programmes in textile design.

“When I opened the centre in Abuja, some of the girls came looking for job, I told them the job that I could offer them was handicraft: bead making, and tie-and-dye of African fabrics.

“After teaching them how to make some handicraft and tie –and-dye popularly called “Adire’’, I also organised art exhibitions for them either at the French Embassy or the German Cultural Centre.’’

She added that she was able to achieve her dream for the girls by providing them free food, free learning materials and free accommodation.

She said that several foreign nationals learnt about the existence of our centres through the art works produced by the students.

Okundaye is a professional textile artist, a painter, a social entrepreneur and a philanthropist.

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