Nigeria

Nigeria is perhaps the country that has had the greatest impact on my life. During my visit, a local guide took me to Makoko, a floating settlement in Lagos where roughly 200,000 people live in wooden homes built on stilts above a lagoon. By then, I’d visited more than half the countries in the world, yet I’d never witnessed poverty like it. We explored the community by canoe before arriving at a makeshift school, where dozens of children were squeezed into small wooden classrooms. Their desks were cracked, many had no shoes, and I met orphans who slept on classroom floors because they had nowhere else to go. Despite everything, they showed an extraordinary enthusiasm for learning.

I couldn’t stop thinking about those children after I returned home. I started a GoFundMe campaign with a modest goal of raising $1,500. Completely unexpectedly, NBA star Kyrie Irving came across it online and donated $45,000. His generosity inspired me to found Humanity Effect, a nonprofit dedicated to giving vulnerable children a better start in life. Over the following years, I returned to Nigeria many times. Together with an incredible local team, Humanity Effect built a second school, an orphanage, and a medical center, and welcomed hundreds of visitors from around the world who came to see the work firsthand.

In 2026, much of Makoko was demolished without warning as part of an urban redevelopment campaign, and our facilities were destroyed. It was heartbreaking to see years of work disappear overnight, but Humanity Effect’s mission didn’t end there. Following the demolition, we partnered with an orphanage on the mainland of Lagos to continue giving vulnerable children a better start in life.

Nigeria taught me that while we don’t have to feel guilty about our privilege, we do have a responsibility to use it to help others. More often than not, it’s in doing so that we find our own greatest sense of purpose.