What We Do

Why Our Work Matters

We are dedicated to serve and to make the world a better place.

Nigeria faces one of the world’s largest poverty challenges. According to the National Multidimensional Poverty Index, over 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty, experiencing deprivations across education, health, living standards, employment, and security. Poverty is particularly severe in rural communities, where families often struggle simultaneously with children being out of school, limited access to healthcare, low incomes, and restricted economic opportunities.

These challenges do not exist in isolation. Poor health affects learning, limited education reduces future earning potential, and economic hardship restricts access to both healthcare and schooling. At ELSOPHI, we believe lasting change requires addressing these interconnected barriers together. That is why our work integrates education, health, and economic empowerment as pathways to sustainable community transformation.

Our Work

For over 14 years, ELSOPHI has worked in the hardest-to-reach communities in Nigeria, bringing together education, health, and economic opportunity as interconnected pathways out of poverty. Our programs are not delivered in isolation. They are designed as integrated systems that address the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community. ELSOPHI exists to break intergenerational cycles of poverty by expanding access to quality education, essential healthcare, and sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable communities

Our Thematic Focus Areas

📚 Education and Learning

🏥 Health and Social Health Protection

💼 Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods

🤝 Community Development and Systems Strengthening

🔬 Research, Learning and Innovation

Cross-Cutting Commitments
• Gender Equality, Equity and Social Inclusion
• Disability Inclusion
• Child Protection and Safeguarding
• Youth Empowerment
• Climate Resilience and Sustainability.

Pillar 1 | School Access Project (SAP)Getting children into school and ensuring they learn while they are there.The ChallengeNigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, over 18.3 million. Across states, economic barriers, gender norms, and the absence of quality learning are the primary drivers of school absence and dropout. Children who attend school are not guaranteed to learn: without skilled teachers and appropriate support, attendance without achievement leaves the cycle of poverty intact.Our ApproachSAP operates a dual-track model targeting both access and quality simultaneously:• Community-Based School Enrolment and Retention: We work with parents, community leaders, schools, and local volunteers to identify out-of-school children, address barriers to enrolment, and support their transition into school. Through community sensitisation, household engagement, referral pathways, and ongoing follow-up, we help ensure that vulnerable children not only enrol but remain in school and progress in their learning journey.• Teacher On-the-Job Coaching: We work directly with classroom teachers through structured coaching cycles, building instructional skills in literacy and numeracy within the school environment, without removing teachers from classrooms.• Community Volunteer After-School Mentorship: We train and deploy community-based volunteers who provide after-school remedial support to children falling behind, bridging the gap between school attendance and actual learning outcomes.

Pillar 2 | Health Access Project (HAP)Bringing essential health services to the doorstep of underserved communities.The ChallengeNigeria has one of the most underdeveloped primary healthcare systems in Africa. In rural communities, women and children bear the greatest burden: maternal mortality remains alarmingly high, vaccination coverage is far below national targets, and preventable diseases, including those affecting vision, continue to rob communities of productive lives. Geographic isolation, poverty, and low health-seeking behaviour compound these challenges.Our ApproachHAP works at the community level to close the gap between communities and the health services they need:• Primary Healthcare Strengthening: We have constructed and equipped a primary healthcare centre for the Ofolikpa community with support from the US Embassy in Nigeria, providing a permanent facility for maternal and child health services.• Community Health Worker Support: We facilitate the posting and capacity building of community health workers to rural clinics, ensuring continuity of care.• Inclusive Eye Health Outreaches: For nine years, our quarterly eye health outreaches have provided eye examinations, corrective eyeglasses, referrals, and financial support for surgical care for the most vulnerable – preventing avoidable blindness in communities that would otherwise have no access.• Health Behaviour Change: We carry out community-level awareness campaigns to improve health-seeking behaviour, particularly among women and carers, on maternal health, child nutrition, vaccination, and hygiene.Emerging Health InnovationCommunity Health Access and Insurance Navigation (CHAIN): ELSOPHI is developing an innovative community-based model that helps vulnerable households navigate health insurance enrolment, access healthcare financing opportunities, utilise essential healthcare services, and remain connected to care. The model is designed to support progress towards universal health coverage by addressing the last-mile barriers that prevent underserved populations from accessing available health services and financing mechanisms.

Pillar 3 | Financial Empowerment Project (FEP)Building livelihoods that last — from survival to sustainable growth.The ChallengeEconomic vulnerability is both the cause and consequence of poor education and health outcomes. In the communities ELSOPHI serves, women in particular face a double barrier: exclusion from formal financial systems and exclusion from digital tools that are increasingly central to economic participation. Without access to capital, skills, and markets, micro and small businesses remain fragile, and families remain trapped in intergenerational poverty.Our ApproachFEP takes a multi-layered approach to economic empowerment, addressing income, assets, skills, and systemic inclusion:•Poverty Reduction through Micro-Enterprise Development (PRIME-Dev)Poverty Graduation Model: Our flagship innovation is PRIME-Dev, a scalable, technology-enabled poverty graduation model that provides formalisation support for micro and small businesses while bridging the digital and financial inclusion gap between women and men in Nigeria. PRIME-Dev leverages digital platforms to connect women entrepreneurs to markets, financial services, and business development support.•Business Startup Grants: We have supported over 500 women with small business startup grants of $125 each, providing the capital injection needed to establish or stabilise micro and small enterprises.•Vocational Training and Startup Kits: We have graduated 150 girls and boys from vocational training programmes, providing them with startup kits to begin their chosen vocation with the tools they need to succeed immediately.•Agricultural Livelihoods: We have supported farming women and men with improved inputs — including vitamin A-fortified cassava seedlings and orange-flesh sweet potato seedlings — to strengthen food security and income from agriculture.•Gender Education and Social Norm Change: We have provided gender education for 1,500 women and men, challenging the social norms that restrict women’s economic participation and building the household-level enabling environment for women’s empowerment.•Climate Action Through Livelihoods: We have supported 1,500 women and men to plant 1,500 economic trees, integrating climate resilience into our livelihood programming and generating long-term income from agroforestry.

Why Our Work Matters

What We Do

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