Ebunoluwa Akinola
Adeoye Fawaz, a 18-year-old boy who works as a bus conductor, has emerged as the overall chess champion in the contest organised by Chess in slums Africa.
Chess in slums Africa is a non-profit organisation known for using the game as a framework to promote education and raise chess champions from low communities.
The group recently organised chess training for “51 homeless children” living under the bridge in Oshodi, a hustling and bustling area in Lagos state.
During the training, the team taught the children on the rudiments of chess as well as mental maths where they were given several puzzles to solve.
The training ended with a contest organised to test the participants’ knowledge of what they were taught during the training session.
In a Twitter thread, Tunde Onakayo, founder of the organisation, said Fawaz emerged as the overall champion in both chess and mental maths. He also narrated how he and his team saw Fawaz about under the bridge and then enlisted him for the training.
According to him, the bus conductor disclosed that he still nurses the dream of becoming a musician and comedian and further his education.
“Adeoye Fawaz, an 18 year old boy who works as a bus conductor and has lived years of his life under Oshodi bridge emerged as our overall champion in both chess and mental maths. A star is born,” Tunde Onakayo wrote.
“The final phase of the mental maths competition was fast and furious but Fawaz aced the questions. Now imagine if you gave these boys a proper education?! Imagine if you gave them coding?! Imagine how many of them we’ve lost to the streets because no one paid attention.
”Onakayo called on Nigerians to support the children to further explore their potentials and get quality education.
