Dreaming Beyond Poverty: How Dream Catchers Academy Transforms Girls’ Lives Through Art

Introduction

Dream Catcher academy is not your average academy we see on daily basis. It’s more like a haven of transformation for the girl child. A place where art rescues the forgotten and orphaned girls are given more than education.
It is located at Ikorodu, Lagos state. Nigeria.

Dream Catcher Academy

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The academy was founded by Seyi Oluyole in the 2014 and was once in the shoes of those orphaned kids she trains now. So she has a first hand experience of when the odds is stacked against you. Growing up, she struggled to come out from extreme poverty and was homeless At some point in her life. Yet she discovered a way to dream beyond the circumstances surrounding her through arts ( dance, drama, music and visual arts).

Her personal journey was what prompted her to start the Dream Catcher Academy for girls under the Dream Nurture Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to nurture girls from marginalized communities through free formal education arts training, shelter, and care

Well, this is actually my first time I’m hearing the name Dream Catcher Academy and thanks to @weisser-rabe who brought it to my attention, I was able to do some little digging and I discovered that the classroom is only part of the story. The heartbeat of the academy is in the dance studio, where music and movement help heal old wounds. For this kids, It’s a therapy. You see the energy they put in when they dance, barefoot girls spinning and doing acrobatics under the fading sun with their faces lit with happiness.

There performance has attracted International celebrities like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Naomi Campbell that have shared their videos. They have also gained global recognition and they were nominated for Favorite African Kidfluencer’ at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.

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They have had talkshows with CNN, BBC and UNICEF. This alone was able to answered my curiosity on how they got up to 1.1 million followers on Facebook. Going through their YouTube page, I noticed they were participants in the “France got talent” show and were disqualified in semifinals. I am still wondering how come many of us don’t know about this kids in Nigeria but if it’s nonsense things, bloggers will be making it trend all over social media overshadowing such incredible talents.

So far so good, the Dream Catcher Academy that started with just 5 girls have grown significantly. In 2022, fundings they raised through partners, GoFundMe, and even support from Lady Gaga and an NFT project was able to compete the first free formal arts education school in Lagos that served over 100 talented girls.

Today, they have touched the lives of over 10,000 girls and families through their arts, education and welfare support and one of their notable success stories is with the young girl “Imoleayo”, meaning light of joy. She suffered abuse and neglect from her dad. This young girl is now doing so well in visual arts and her work now catching eyes of local galleries. There are so many girls in the academy that have moved from grass to grace and this shows that if a lady is pointed at the right direction and in an enabling environment, she can rewrite her story.

Why It Matters

In a nation like Nigeria, where there is high poverty rates and gender inequality plays a role in determining the girls child future, Dream Catchers Academy offers a different path. A path that reminds us that education doesn’t happen in books alone but also in dancing, drama and in visual arts.

To know more about them, you can visit their official website at https://dreamcatchersacademy.org

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/share/17CR36WCos/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dreamcatchersacademy?si=uDDe_loZh1KY5iAy