CHS '99 Grad Starts Foundation for Nigerian Girls

Though Mobolaji Akiode recognizes the irony of having started Hope4GirlsAfrica, an international non-profit with the goal of empowering young African women to play sports, in the midst of a global recession, the timing was right for her.

"There's never a wrong time to do the right thing," said Akiode, 27, a 1999 graduate of Columbia High School, where she started playing basketball under Coach Johanna Wright, who bought her her first pair of basketball sneakers and with whom she still speaks constantly.

Akiode came back to Maplewood for a two-week stretch, but she's currently based in Lagos, Nigeria, the country where she spent much of her childhood, though she lived in the U.S. for good starting in the early '90s. Her visit is a blur of meetings to discuss partnerships and sports equipment donations for the girls basketball camps she organizes in Nigeria.

She first hatched the idea to start her own foundation during her time on the Nigerian national women's basketball team, which she joined in 2004 after graduating from Fordham -- where she also played basketball -- because it was her dream to compete in the Olympics. (Her team became the first-ever African women's basketball squad to win an Olympic game with their victory over South Korea.)

The vast majority of her teammates on the national team were from America, but she got a better picture of the plight of women athletes in Nigeria when she played for a club team there. "A lot of these girls, because they don't have role models, they let the pressure of their environment keep them boxed in," she said. "You can escape poverty, but the first way to do so is to have an enriched and enlightened mind."

Akiode retired from professional basketball in late 2006 and went to work for ESPN in Bristol, Conn. as an accountant, a dream job for her, since she became obsessed with watching ESPN in her high school days. She left the job in October 2009 and relocated but had already started Hope4Girls, having organized a week-long sleepaway basketball camp for 65 girls between 12 and 19 from across Nigeria last summer.

According to Akiode, the goal of the camp -- which she's held follow-up sessions for in the past months -- is to empower young women through basketball, and she's recruited two of her former Fordham coaches and two-time Olympic gold medalist Yolanda Griffith to work with the girls. There are discussions of relevant issues like AIDS, relationships, poverty and education, but Akiode has also provided more material support, like when she gave one young woman funds to pay the balance of her college tuition fee out of her own pocket. (Luckily, she noted that tuition in Nigeria is "much cheaper" than in the U.S.)

In addition to planning another camp for the summer, Akiode is working on an initiative to develop girls basketball programs in eight middle and high schools in Lagos, in an effort to re-create the type of community that nurtured her while she was at Columbia. This will require building courts, and for that, the non-profit will need sponsorships, which are hard to come by in this economic climate. But Hope4GirlsAfrica is getting exposure in recent segments on CBS and Akiode's former employer ESPN, including a program called "Her Story" on women in sports, which will air in March for Women's History Month.

Ultimately, Akiode would like to have a position in sports administration in Africa, potentially as a government consultant, representing women. "For me, my goal is to get long-term partnership so I can go back to school," said Akiode, who plans to apply to top U.S. business schools in the fall.

But for the time being, her focus is localized. She's in constant contact with the girls from her camp, who call and e-mail and sometimes bump into her on the streets of Lagos. When she organizes camps and clinics for them, the color theme is feminine with bright pinks and blues. "We're girls, we're playing, we're pretty, we're cute," she said.

And while giving up her job, apartment and life in the U.S. wasn't easy, she has no regrets. "It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, because it's not for me," she said. "It's the most fulfilling."

If you'd like to donate to Hope4GirlsAfrica, click here.