International Women’s Day Spotlight: Paradise Ozibo
For this volunteer spotlight, we spoke with Paradise Adline Ozibo about her experience partnering with Oppia and her work as a Founder of Youths for Rural Education and Job Creation Initiative.
Paradise, an Igbo educator from Ebonyi State, Nigeria, is driven by her passion to ensure that every child in her state has access to a quality and inclusive education. As a volunteer for Oppia and the founder of Youths for Rural Education and Job Creation Initiative, Paradise promotes equal access to quality education for youth all throughout her state.
She is most passionate about promoting sustainable development in Nigeria, but she also enjoys teaching students who face challenges in their learning. She finds it highly rewarding to witness a student’s progress and understanding of the material at hand. Paradise maintains that education access plays a huge role in the current sustainable development of her home state.
“I believe that everyone should have access to quality education, especially children and young adults. That is why I like what Oppia Foundation is doing with the free lessons being translated into many languages.”
Paradise notes that there are strong barriers to education access within her community. From a lack of educational training for the teachers to poor infrastructure within the classroom to limited internet connectivity, students are still expected to continue to perform and learn. When Paradise saw these challenges within the classroom, she felt compelled to act. Paradise created the Ebonyi Literacy Project, an organization that both recruits volunteers who are passionate about teaching and trains them on best teaching practices for children with differing learning abilities.
“Again, [the Ebonyi Literacy Project] uses the free Oppia lessons to teach the students mathematics and it has been helpful. We support [students who are disengaged from schooling] to go back to school.”
Currently, Paradise hopes that with organizations like Oppia, more children can have access to quality education. She encourages all who are motivated to improve access to education and overall learning outcomes to use the Oppia lessons because they are free, unique, and interactive.
