Why We Do This!
My name is Ahmed Kadi, I am a part of the Senior Leadership Team at a secondary school and the creator of Troglodyte Society NFTs. I started this project to raise the funds needed to build a children's center in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
The children's center will be a “drop in” youth club designed to meet the specific needs and requirements of the young people, with members having a large influence on the running of the club and its activities. We will also offer Supplementary Education to children, and young adults, in the areas of Mathematics, English Language, English Literature, IT, Arts, and Music. Finally, we will focus on micro projects to help develop and generate employment, and to encourage micro-economic growth, in and around local communities.
My Story
I was born and raised in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
As a 12 year old boy, at 3am one bloody rainy morning in 1993, three truck loads of soldiers with their machine guns, rocket launchers and machetes aggressively made their way into our home. I can vividly remember my mum waking us up with fear in her eyes. At this point we were already taken out of school as the coup had already started. I could hear a lot of shouting and screaming; dogs barking; it was complete chaos. My mother hid my sister away to ensure that the soldiers could not find her as she feared they would abuse her or kidnap her. This was the effects of the Sierra Leone civil war.
The soldiers broke into our home with guns in hand and ordered us all onto the veranda. I can still remember like it was yesterday, how a few of the soldiers continuously struck my dad in the head with the butt of their machine guns; blood everywhere; draining from his face onto the rain soaked veranda.
With guns pointed at my family and me, we were demanded to lay on the floor in a puddle of blood and rain water. This day was especially memorable because of the thunderstorm that night. My dad's blood was everywhere. I watched helplessly as he was finally dragged away to one of soldiers' truck.
After the soldiers departed with my dad, we immediately went and stayed at the home of one of my uncles. At the time, their son, my cousin Tarek had also been taken. He was hog-tied and beaten.
At 12 years old, I watched my family desperately search to find my father who was being held captive and beaten for 2 weeks by soldiers. He suffered from epilepsy and was taken away without his medication. We feared that he would not survive imprisonment and was afraid he was dead. My father was eventually released. We sold everything we could to leave the country. There were no banks or any other means of getting access to our funds as everything was destroyed. Our house, all of our land and properties were sold for plane tickets and my family and I fled to the UK as refugees. We were homeless and lived in a hostel for nine months. We were one of the lucky ones.
The kids of Sierra Leone are still feeling the effects of the wars of the past. Poverty has taken over and children are suffering everyday because of it.
Sierra Leone’s literacy rate is lower than the average in western Africa and is among the lowest in the world. Underprivileged children are prostituting themselves just to help feed and take care of their families.
There were so many others who were not as fortunate as we were to be able to get on a plane and seek refuge into another country. I am forever grateful and would now like to help my country of birth by helping those who cannot help themselves.
Hard work, determination and the love from my family is what got me where I am today. I am currently a part of the Senior Leadership Team at a secondary school in the UK. I worked my way up through the ranks by educating myself, obtaining my Bachelors degree from university and placing myself in a position to be well equipped to take on this goal.
It is now time to finally help the kids who continue to suffer due to the effects of the Sierra Leone civil war.
Help me help them!
We are "Bringing children a better tomorrow today with NFTs!"