Giving Boys The Space To Learn, Play, Dream And Create.
We create safe and empowering spaces where boys express themselves, grow in confidence, and lead change.
We Are Empowering The Dream Of Every Abandoned Boy
At MENDAYA, we believe that when a child is given the tools to express, create, and lead, they don’t just change their own story; they help rewrite their community’s future.
We exist to break the cycle of silence, aggression, and harmful stereotypes that have kept too many boys unseen and unheard.
Our approach equips children with the confidence, skills, and creative power to rise as changemakers, shaping a world where empathy, respect, and purpose guide strength.
Circular Fashion Design
At Mendaya, circular fashion is more than a design approach; it is a pathway for adolescent boys and young men to rebuild confidence, imagination, and creative resilience and resourcefulness. Tailors and fashion houses produce huge amounts of textile waste that end up being burnt or dumped into landfills. We collect these discarded fabrics and turn them into a creative resource for learning and body apparel for kids.
Through our circular fashion design workshops, we teach youngsters skills in zero-waste design, upcycling, and recycling. They learn to design their own shirts, hats, bags, shoes, toys and art pieces by thoughtfully using every scrap, ensuring nothing goes to waste.
Collection Drive
We organize regular textile waste collection drives targeting local tailor shops and fashion houses. The waste collected are sorted into different color and texture, becoming the raw materials for creativity.
Design Thinking
We combine design thinking and circular fashion, teaching children to understand problems, experiment with materials, and use their creativity to turn waste into colorful clothes, shoes and bags for themselves.
Bespoke Tailoring
For six months, our participants goes through an experiential creative workshop that combines arts, designs and storytelling while building emotional intelligence and gaining practical eco-tailoring skills.
Creative Advocacy
We’re reimagining child-rights advocacy by turning creativity into action.
Through fashion runways, art and sport festivals, talk shows, debate and cycling expeditions, we create platforms where children become advocates of their own rights, demanding the world they wish to see and live in.
Our programs help boys speak up in their homes, schools, and communities, using creative messaging to challenge harmful stereotypes around masculinity and gender.
Through our creative advocacy programs, they learn about child rights, empathy, child protection, and gender equality, values that equip them to stand up against injustice wherever they see it. We show boys that standing up for girls, for classmates, or for any child being mistreated is not weakness; it’s leadership.
Because the abuse of one child is the abuse of all.
Our advocacy work also challenges violent discipline and corporal punishment, practices that break children instead of building them.
Alternative Education
With over 10 million children out of school in Northern Nigeria, it is important to reimagine education beyond the walls of the classroom. We create alternative and experiential learning spaces where learning is both playful, fun and creative. Our education programs support children who are out of school, at risk of dropping out, or struggling academically, transforming education into a bridge, not a barrier.
We believe in education as the right of every child, and preparing boys for life and leadership begins here, with mentorship, life skills, and character formation. We teach time management, decision-making, and personal development to help them balance school, work, and personal growth.
Trusted mentors and counsellors serve as consistent anchors, modelling positive masculinity and guiding them to discover and use their creativity.
Our programs are designed to teach positive masculinity, break harmful gender stereotypes, and empower boys to stand up for justice, not only for themselves, but for others.
Community And Environmental Action
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” Wendell Berry
We engage boys in environmental and community action, helping them see themselves as protectors of both people and the planet. Through our Boys for Change Fellowship and Project UNSTITCH, they identify environmental problems around them and design simple, local solutions.
They lead textile-waste collection drives, transforming discarded fabrics into useful items for their everyday needs and for other vulnerable children. Along the River Kaduna, they take part in tree-planting projects that help prevent flooding and displacement.
Through clean-ups and nature walks, boys reconnect with the earth, learning that caring for the environment is also caring for themselves and their communities. One act of stewardship at a time, they become builders of a greener, safer future.
