Growing up, Esther Williams watched her mother care for children who were homeless and neglected. Years later, that experience would become part of the foundation for a nonprofit organisation now working to support vulnerable children and underserved communities across Nigeria.
In 2018, Williams founded the Esther Williams Foundation with a focus on education, children’s health, girl-child empowerment, protection, mentorship and community development. Eight years later, the organisation says its programmes have reached more than 1,130 students across schools and communities, while more than 1,000 hygiene kits have been distributed.
For Williams, however, the work is not simply about increasing the number of beneficiaries. It is about addressing some of the everyday barriers that can make it harder for children, particularly girls, to stay healthy, confident and engaged in school.
One of the foundation’s key programmes is the Pad A Girl Outreach and Hygiene Education Programme, which combines menstrual health education with the distribution of sanitary products. The programme has been implemented in schools including Oluwole Secondary School in Ejigbo and Queen’s College in Yaba, where more than 1,000 sanitary pads were distributed during the previous year.
The foundation’s approach goes beyond giving out products. Girls are taught about menstrual health and encouraged to understand their bodies and manage their periods with greater confidence and dignity.
That distinction is important to Williams because menstrual hygiene is only one part of the challenges facing the children her organisation serves. Its programmes also include educational support, counselling, health and wellbeing initiatives, mentorship and leadership development.
The organisation says it has also provided food to more than 500 people through its outreach activities and implemented more than four major programmes. Its work currently has a strong focus on girls, supported by more than 20 volunteers and team members and more than 20 partners and supporters.
For some beneficiaries, the impact is felt in ways that statistics cannot fully capture. Blessing, a student at Ikeja Senior High School, said the hygiene education she received helped her take better care of herself, increased her confidence and reduced her fear of attending school during her period.
Williams says these individual changes are as important as the organisation’s headline numbers. Her foundation describes its model as child-centred and community-driven, working with schools, communities, government agencies, corporate organisations and development partners.
The organisation is primarily active in Lagos but says it is expanding its reach to other communities across Nigeria, with volunteers also supporting its activities from different parts of the country and Dublin.
The story of the Esther Williams Foundation is therefore rooted in something much more personal than an NGO programme. Williams grew up watching someone close to her respond to vulnerable children with compassion, and she has turned that early example into an organisation attempting to create more structured and sustained support for children facing difficult circumstances.
As the foundation grows, the challenge will be to turn individual interventions into systems that can continue supporting children long after a particular outreach event is over.
For Williams, the goal is ultimately larger than distributing hygiene kits or providing school support. It is about creating environments where vulnerable children can access education, understand their health, develop confidence and have the support they need to build better futures.
