There is a number that stops you when you first hear it.

17.5 million.

That is the estimated number of orphaned and vulnerable children in
Nigeria, according to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social
Development. It makes Nigeria the country with the second-highest
number of orphaned children on earth, behind only India. To put it in
perspective: the entire population of the Netherlands is 17 million
people. We are talking about an orphan population in one country that
is larger than most nations.

And yet, the last time Nigeria produced a comprehensive national count
of its orphaned children was 2008. More than fifteen years ago. No
updated national data. No revised policy. A crisis the size of a
country, met mostly with silence.

This is the context in which NextGEM Foundation was born.

The Beginning of NextGem

We did not start with a boardroom or a budget. We started with a
question that became impossible to ignore: what actually happens to
these children?

Not the ones who make it into the headlines. Not the ones in the
videos that circulate around Christmas and Easter, surrounded by
visitors handing out noodles and taking photographs. The ones who
don't. The ones who grow up inside a system that, even when
well-meaning, is often underfunded, understaffed, and unequipped to
prepare them for the life waiting on the other side of those gates.

According to the Association of Orphanages and Homes Operators in
Nigeria (ASOHON), Nigeria does not have nearly enough registered
orphanages or foster homes to meet the scale of need. Many that
exist operate entirely on charity, with no government policy
guaranteeing their survival. As ASOHON's president stated in 2023,
"The government needs to prioritise child welfare systems instead of
leaving it all to NGOs."

Meanwhile, conflict in Nigeria's northeast and northwest continues to
generate new displacement every year. UNICEF reports that 60 percent
of the approximately 2.9 million internally displaced persons across
the northeast, northwest, and north-central regions are children.
Nearly 5 million Nigerian children were in urgent need of humanitarian
assistance in 2024, mainly due to armed conflict and climate-related
disasters. Many of those children will lose parents to that conflict.
Many already have.

NextGem: The Cure for Stigmitization

What makes the situation harder is not just the numbers. It is the
attitude that surrounds them.

In Nigeria, and across much of the world, the word "orphan" carries
a weight that follows a child long after they have left whatever
institution raised them. They are defined first by their loss, not
by who they are. When society looks at them, it sees a problem to
be managed, a statistic to be cited, a photo opportunity to be
posted. It rarely sees a future doctor, a future engineer, a future
mother or community leader.

That is the thing we are here to change.

NextGEM Foundation was established in 2026 in Yenagoa, Bayelsa
State, Nigeria, with one founding conviction: losing a parent does
not mean losing a future. We exist not to manage orphaned children
from a distance. We exist to be close, to be consistent, and to
invest in who these children are becoming.

Our tagline is simple: A future for every orphan.

Not a meal. Not a photo. A future.

NextGem Values

We are guided by Christian values — the love, dignity, and servant
care that Jesus modelled when he placed a child in the centre of the
room and said, essentially: this is the standard. Not charity from
above. Not pity from a distance. A child in the centre. Worthy of
full attention, full investment, full belief.

That is the standard we hold ourselves to.

Our goal is not to produce grateful recipients of charity. Our goal
is to produce well-mannered, ambitious, capable adults who can
meaningfully contribute to their families, their communities, and
their nation. Every programme we build, every relationship we form,
every peso and hour spent is pointed in that direction.

We are young. We are growing. And we are serious.

If you want to follow what we are doing, subscribe to our newsletter
or follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @nextgemfoundation. If you
want to get involved, reach us at nextgemfoundation@gmail.com.

The work has already started.