In 2019, in a two bed apartment on the island of Lagos, the team of Bisi Alimi Foundation (BAF) during the annual staff retreat were deep in discussion on how to expand our work and be more proactive within the LGBTQI community in Nigeria.

To give you a perspective, when we started BAF, we were very clear on our mission to make sure that we focus more on the people that have impact on our lives and less on the community.

This is not because we want to ignore the community but the fact that there are many LGBTQI+ centric organisations that were already doing a great work with the community.

3 years after we started BAF, however, we realised that something was missing. Our programs were missing the angelic troublemakers and so we had to fix it. Hence, we created the Rainbow Academy.

The mission is simple: “to create a generation of well-rounded LGBT persons in Nigeria with a strong value of self to influence positive change in society”.

This is a first of its kind program in Nigeria that is focused on making sure we build powerful individuals that can speak up, create businesses, shape policies, aspire to influence in whatever way possible the future of LGBTQI in Nigeria.

In 2021, we were glad to have 20 LGBTQI people arrive Lagos for the first ever Rainbow Academy residential training program.

The training that took place over a duration of 7 days has been so successful and popular that when we opened the call for 2022 application, we received over 400 applications.

Our current scholars have been involved in many activities including the famous Ake Festival and many more.

We are therefore happy to present to you, our 2022 Rainbow Academy Scholars.

Please read up on them on our website and watch this space for the amazing work they will be doing in the next 12months.

If you want to support our work, you can be a regular donor here or you can give us one off gift here