from Ayo Oshunremi at CEO and founder of Inspiration Youth Call
The Start
The mystery of life placed me in the hands of complex, uncaring, unsympathetic and incompatible parents. Including my birth, and throughout my childhood and into my adult life, anything and everything that could’ve gone wrong certainly did. I have listed below the following words that were used by my parents to describe me during my childhood.
- Useless/Stupid
- Thick
- Good for nothing
- Worthless
- An embarrassment to the family
- A write-off
- Mug
- Scumbag
My life was in pieces, it felt broken, before it ever had a chance to begin!
My name is Ayo Oshunremi; child and family inspirational mentor, author, CEO and founder of Inspiration Youth Call – a child and family mentoring service I set up over 11 years ago.
From the age of 29, I became determined – to help disaffected children and young people who lack and or experiencing one or more of the following:
Terror and cruelty in and outside of the comfort of their homes
- Dysfunctional and unstable home life
- Lack life skills
- Lack positive role models
- Lack the confidence and ability to participate in education and training
- Lack the sense of belonging and identity
- Lack direction in life
- Lack motivation
State of Purpose
- To passionately seek the betterment of people and the community we serve
- To develop a hard work ethic and emphasize its relevance for a brighter future for all people and the community
- To effectively shape the laying of good foundations for children and young people
- Despite the hopelessness that may be apparent, to encourage in the wider society the resistance to never ever give up on children and young people
- To walk in integrity no matter how difficult that may be, and to own up where we get it wrong
Quotes taking from my book
If we become selective about what we want to enhance in children as opposed to what we institutionally suppress in them; we then do this at the peril of grooming a well balanced, just and moral society. It can be compared to taming a beast only to let it loose to attack society at a future date.
Subsequently, the less favoured children are pushed to the margins of society just because of their low abilities or impoverished backgrounds. The less favoured children often have emotional and behavioural problems, which subsequently makes them difficult to teach and manage within a mainstream school environment.
It’s a fact that we are defined by what we see and experience in life. I have unfortunately had to endure experiences during my childhood and adult life that left me physically and emotionally scarred. I have experienced terror and cruelty which completely destroyed my innocence and self worth. As a young boy I watched those who were suppose to care for me lead a flamboyant and hedonistic lifestyle. There lifestyle obviously had an impact and influence on my life decisions as naturally I presumed this was the correct way to behave. In contrast to my care givers behaviour I was also lucky enough to have influential aunties and surrogate mothers who taught me to believe in the infinite resilience of the human spirit. They lead by example and left a huge impression on me long after they were gone. The cruelty and emotional pain that I have suffered made me view the world differently.
However, I have learnt circumstances that cannot completely break you, will not kill you. I wanted to aspire to understand my circumstances and events in life that shaped me, and conquer them. Once I had achieved this I was then able to make a lasting difference in the life of children and young people around the globe whenever the opportunity arose.
Working Together
- Aspiration 4 D Future – Possibility of Collaboration with Nigeria my country of origin
- Empower young people to have a voice in Nigeria
- Develop Ambassadors to champion the concept of IYC in Nigeria
- Establish IYC Youth Mentoring Programme in schools in Nigeria
- IYC Awards to celebrate youth achievement in Nigeria
- IYC community youth events to start off in Ogun State, my state of origin.
- Seeking attention positively in the right places could propel you into God ordained vocation for your life. He who fails to strive will struggle to appreciate achievement when it comes his way; as such achievement slips out of his hands very easily. If you have never failed, you may have never tried in the first place.
You are far better than you think. You are More Than Able.
