Chi Chi - LandAid – The property industry charity

Chi Chi

Chi Chi has been attending Fairbridge’s flagship centre in Hackney. The centre was funded with a lead donation of £50,000 from LandAid. Fairbridge is a national charity helping young people who are not in education, training or employment. At the centre young people take part in constructive and challenging activities and receive a tailored programme of support to help them go back to school or find a job.

Hi, my name is Chi-chi and I’m 18. I arrived in London from Nigeria at the start of 2010. I came over to start a new life with my mother who was already here and I was referred to Fairbridge by Connexions.
I needed to mix with people my own age and didn’t know where to start. I didn’t have any friends and needed to improve my communication skills.

Since starting I’ve been choosing sessions where I could work on that along with time keeping and planning. It’s definitely worked because I’ve made friends and I feel much more confident, I could talk to anyone, even the Queen and not feel scared!

The Youth Ambassador Project (YAP) has been great for me because I can combine it with the evening course I’ve just started at Birbeck University. I’m studying for a diploma in Mathematics two nights a week and I’m continuing my personal development by taking part in YAP.

Through YAP I’ve have had the opportunity to speak to important people like journalists, Ministers and MPs, as well as local people around Hackney. Listening to their views and feeling that I can speak my mind without being judged has been great.

With the help of the mentors from News International and Reed Smith, my research and presentation skills have improved loads and this is really going to help me in my studies. Personally I’ve also learned to look for the other side of the coin. I can look at things from other people’s point of view now.

I feel that young people are often stereotyped and it’s good to be able to challenge that as part of YAP. If I hadn’t come to Fairbridge I would probably be in my lonely bed and doing nothing with my time apart from school – I didn’t realise there were so many good opportunities out there for me, you just have to search for them.