Our #OnePerson for November 2025 is Grace Amuzie’s
Grace Amuzie’s work is born from a simple yet powerful personal mandate: to ensure that the kindness that funded her own education is paid forward to her community. Growing up in Ajegunle, a densely populated Lagos slum, Amuzie witnessed the harsh reality that for most families, paying for quality primary education was an impossible burden.
When she was 15, Grace gathered a few children and started teaching them at the end of her school days. She remembered how grateful she felt to be supported in her own education and she wanted something similar for others. That early effort grew into Isrina Schools, a low-cost learning centre founded in 2016 and launched in full in 2017.
The most striking thing about Isrina? The “Recycle Pay” tuition model. Parents who can’t pay cash bring in recyclable plastics ,bottles, sachets, whatever they can collect. The school sells them to recycling firms and the proceeds go toward fees. One report says the school collected two tonnes of plastic waste in a year and helped over 40 children through that model.
The “Recycles Pay” model has delivered a double-barreled impact that is both measurable and transformative. On the educational front, it has enabled Isrina Schools to grow from just four students to over 120 enrolled pupils, empowering parents to become active contributors to their children’s future. Environmentally, the project has mobilized the community to collect thousands of kilograms of waste, including over 9,000 kg of PET bottles, effectively turning neighborhood refuse into a valuable economic resource.
The model keeps families involved. It turns something as ordinary as waste collection into a shared effort between school and home to keep children learning. A child isn’t just admitted, they learn in a classroom rather than from a street-light or none at all. Grace says: “For us, collaboration is our driving force. We work alongside parents to ensure maximum impact.”
Grace’ entrepreneurial ingenuity has earned her significant, though niche, recognition. She is a winner of the Savvy Prize for Impact-Driven Entrepreneurs and the ELOY Award for Humanitarian (NGO), validating her solution as both innovative and effective. She successfully adapted a global social enterprise concept to address acute local realities, demonstrating remarkable leadership and resilience in an environment characterized by infrastructural deficits and financial constraints.
Her perseverance was recently rewarded with a major milestone. After years of operating from a temporary space, Isrina Schools secured a N15 million donation for the purchase of a permanent, multi-classroom building. This achievement is not just an infrastructural upgrade; it is a testament to the stability and scalability of a vision that began with a 15-year-old teaching local children in her neighborhood.
What she’s doing matters beyond the school itself. She’s teaching this generation that access to education isn’t just about money, it’s about community, ingenuity, and the belief that a child surrounded by walls can still reach for the stars. She’s turning waste into worth, turning an under-served community into a place of possibility.
Grace Amuzie is a true changemaker. By creating a circular economy model that cleans the environment and clears the path for education, she is giving the children of Ajegunle the most critical tool for their future: opportunity. Her commitment to community empowerment through highly creative, sustainable solutions stands as proof that big change doesn’t always start with big money, sometimes it starts with a vision, a few children, and the courage to begin.
Let us celebrate Grace!