Yemisi Doherty is a fun loving, energetic and enthusiastic lady, a lover of God and proud mother of two wonderful girls.
She studied Physical and Health Education at Adeyemi College of Education. Ondo, and Educational Administration/Planning at National Open University, Victoria Island Lagos.
Yemisi is an effective educational administrator with vast experience in impacting adequate knowledge in learners and educators to utilize optimum potentials, fashion out creative ways of sustaining productivity, profitability and long term survival in the field of their career.
She has taught and worked as a school coordinator in some schools and is presently working as an educational consultant in various schools in Lagos and Ondo.
She is of the opinion that “Parenting Is Not For Cowards” and for this reason, she decided to set up an organization in 2008, called “De Kids ‘N’ Parents” (DKP). It was set up to support parents in their assignment of raising well-rounded children.
In an interview with City People’s Society Reporter TitiloPe Ogunleye, Yemisi spoke on her 10 years journey of coordinating “De Kids ‘N’ Parents as they will be celebrating on Sunday 29th July 2018 their challenges, successes and many others. Below are the excerpts.
Why did you choose education of all professions?
I was born into the family of educationists. My father was a lecturer and my mother was a teacher and I saw how people came to the house to appreciate my mother who ran a coaching centre. She was fondly called Mummy lesson and through her passion for education, she was able to impact lives. Some parents even brought their children to live with us. Seeing the positive transformation that happened to these children increased my passion.
I actually wanted to go for Agric/Economics but as God would have it I made the choice for education and I am not regretting it today.
How did you start De Kids ‘N’ parents?
We started in 2008, July 27th to be précise with just 13 girls. We started with a girls camp during summer (July-August) for just two weeks that was tagged “Let’s train the girl child”. The success was unbelievable and we had a dinner with their parents and we discussed all they had learnt. We visited Cane Village in Maryland, a fashion house and we also met the First Woman Town Planner in Africa TPL Mrs C.K. George at Anthony just for them to know they can be the first of anything if they do it right and several others places.
In 2019, during Easter period, we had a concert that was tagged. “Africa is rich in Culture” and our aim was to educate the children on the rich culture in Nigeria. We also visited Ghana. We visited the cape coast, Kakun Park, Slave Arena, Kwami Nkoumah Museum, Art and Culture zone and it was lovely. I would not forget City People because you hosted us in Osu, Ghana.
In December we had total growth and we had guests who spoke with us. Local government supported us and several other companies. Demola Doherty, of the Ifako-Ijaye local government supported too and sponsored children even to Ghana. In 2010 we had “I Need to Know”. We visited different tourist sites in Nigeria.
Amuwo Odofin local government supported too. Comrade Ayodele Adewale even did banner for us. We visited Eluna castle and some of them were just crying when they learnt what happened to people in the past due to slave trade.
Fast forward to 2018, children need to learn moral values that will take them through. There were challenges but we are still standing.
What are your success story for a decade of running DKP?
Many of those children are now out of the country. But those values would not leave their lives. One of them in Texas sent me a message that growing up in Nigeria gave her the opportunity of different trips and she got hold of a lesson that has been learnt that would take them through life. Some of these children are graduates now and they are doing well in their different fields.
Several of their parents call and come in person to appreciate “DKP” because of the change and transformatiion that has happened to their children and that is our joy.
This year’s edition is targeted towards the parent, Is it just for parents alone?
Parents complain that they don’t know the styles to use to train their children. I realized that we have parents who are cowards who complain that don’t correct, beat or scold their kids because they don’t want the children to hate them. 27th of July 2018 is for the children and we would be visiting the old people home at Yaba. We will also be giving out awards to our sponsor through the years. The Sunday 29th July is the grand finale for parents and children and we have a whole lot packed for them.
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