Educator · Speaker · Founder, The Kindness Project
Twenty years ago, an immigration officer in Nigeria asked me a question I still haven’t fully answered: “What is your mission?” It’s taken two decades in classrooms, a charity, and a platform called InnerJoy Ed to find out. Along the way, I learned that kindness isn’t a soft skill — it’s the thing everything else is built on.
Why this works
Twenty years in classrooms taught me that. Not as a theory, but as something I watched happen, over and over, in front of me. The child in front of you rarely determines how you respond. What determines it is what’s already going on inside you before that child ever arrives.
The quality of a classroom can never exceed the emotional capacity of its teacher. So instead of teaching children to regulate on their own, I started teaching the adults around them — how to notice their own state, name it, and choose their response before it chooses them.
That single realisation became the seed for InnerJoy Ed, the platform I co-founded to bring emotional resilience and wellbeing to children and educators across the globe. Alongside that work, I lead The Kindness Project — turning kindness into scholarships, a school, and a growing network of young ambassadors across the world.
Two missions, one belief
Three organisations, each an answer to that belief, built for a different room.
Little Big Gestures. A charity founded in memory of Lavina Bharat Ganglani, providing 50+ scholarships a year, a subsidised primary school in Kano serving almost 200 students, and a growing network of 50+ Youth Kindness Ambassadors worldwide.
The professional-development arm of The Kindness Project, where I lead workshops for schools and institutions — offered mostly at no cost, with proceeds from other engagements helping the mission grow.
Speaking
What if the most powerful force to change the world is kindness? Over the past two decades I’ve carried that question onto stages across four continents — to teachers, students, school leaders and communities — sharing how kindness transforms education, and how one simple act can inspire a much larger movement.
TEDx
TEDx Skyline University Nigeria · Beyond the Horizon: Challenging the Norms
“Kindness isn’t a transaction. It’s a transformation.”
What if the most powerful force to change the world is kindness? I shared my own journey discovering how kindness transforms education, writing, and community action — and how a simple act can connect us all and inspire a global movement for compassion and change.
Watch the talkStages
Kano, Nigeria. Spoke on Emotional Intelligence for Kids and led a breakout session for school leaders and educators — recognised with the ANSC 2026 Appreciation Award for facilitating meaningful learning experiences.
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. An Entrepreneurship Cell talk on emotional intelligence and the “inner battery” for 300 students and staff, drawn from InnerJoy Ed.
Kano, Nigeria. Facilitated “Multiple Choice: Life’s Most Important Test” for 50+ young participants at the Skill Development Centre, exploring how everyday choices shape the future.
Bangalore, India. A talk and Kindness Project gifting session with young people at the centre.
A talk to incoming freshmen students — the same university that later hosted her TEDx talk.
2025 Vocational Award of Excellence, Rotary Club of Kano — in recognition of contribution to community development through The Kindness Project NG.Rotary Club of Kano · District 9127, Nigeria
What people say
My small choices determine my life. This is what I loved, learnt and will remember from Mrs. Anju’s seminar for youth.
Khadija · SEWA International VolunteerI realized that giving is not about how much you have; it is about the mind and heart to give. One small act of kindness can make the world a better place.
Mr. Chinedu · Director, Exclusive SchoolsThe Kindness Project
Founded in 2023 in memory of Lavina Bharat Ganglani, on a simple belief: kindness has the power to change lives. Since then, we’ve turned that belief into scholarships, a school, and a network of young people carrying kindness into their own communities — because one opportunity can change a life, and one act of kindness can change a community.
Youths are empowered to lead and show kindness in their own communities. We give young people the chance to show their initiative and shine in their own way — from donation drives to acts of service, organised city by city, entirely by them.
Hajira
Angelina
Mairead
Krishna
Zidane
Geong Min
Deepti
Blessing
Youth Kindness Ambassadors design and lead their own acts of service — donation drives, community outreach, and everyday kindness — wherever they are in the world.
DM to become an ambassadorEducation is at the heart of our work. Every year we provide 50+ scholarships to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, giving them the chance to attend school, learn, and build a brighter future. In 2025 we took that commitment further, building a primary school in one of the slum communities of Kano — now serving almost 200 students at a highly subsidised cost.
Giving isn’t only about the big gestures. Every week, The Kindness Project distributes food to families and communities in Kano facing hardship — a small, steady act of service that shows up the same way, every week, for the people who need it most.
Kindness and charity come in all shapes and forms. We give from our hearts before we give from our pockets — and whether little or big, we can all make a difference in someone’s life.The Kindness Project · Founded 2023
EduKind
Twenty years of classroom experience, rebuilt into sessions for the adults who run schools. EduKind brings the same InnerJoy Ed philosophy — that the trigger is never the child, it’s the internal state of the teacher — directly to staff rooms, professional development days and school leadership.
One idea, one practical tool. A staff briefing, an assembly, or a conference opener.
The full arc, plus a guided practice the whole room does together — seated, eyes open, nothing embarrassing.
One theme taken all the way down — emotional regulation, the teacher’s internal state, or building a kinder classroom culture. Participants leave with something built, not just heard.
The full intensive for a school or faculty — InnerJoy Ed’s approach, translated for adults, covering emotional intelligence from the inside out.
What a room walks out with
In the room
“The Teacher’s Toolbox” — a full staff seminar for Al-Ansar School’s teaching team, working through the same tools that anchor every EduKind session: naming an internal state, catching it before it becomes a reaction, and choosing a response that reflects the teacher they want to be.
What teachers say
I love the quote, ‘A better me makes a better we.’ I’ve learned that when I develop myself positively, I become better able to support, encourage and positively impact the people around me.
Ms. Saratu · Science TeacherWhat I appreciate most about her seminars is that they are not just about listening — they are about learning, reflecting, and gaining valuable lessons that I can apply in my everyday life.
Ms. Onome · Deputy HeadmistressYour seminars come in a completely different package. They relate to real life, and you don’t just teach — you mentor. Every session is meaningful, practical, and inspiring.
Ms. Susan · English TeacherBooks
Long before EduKind, I was writing for the toughest audience there is — a child who will tell you immediately if something is boring. Each story explores emotion, empathy, kindness or belonging in a way young readers can actually hold onto.
Uniting the warmth of Nigeria and the spirit of India
When the Khannas move from India to Nigeria, they discover the warmth of their new community while keeping their own traditions alive. Launched by the Acting High Commissioner of India at the Indian Consulate, Abuja.
Embracing our unique differences
Naina, a curious girl, discovers that her friends and family see the world differently — and learns that everyone’s unique perspective makes the world more interesting.
The inspiring journey of Sauda Imam
A girl from Kano, Nigeria turns challenges into triumphs — from dreaming big to founding schools that empower children.
We bloom in friendship
Girls from different cultures, each represented by a flower, celebrating friendship across differences.
Simi loves to sing but isn’t very good at it. She doesn’t give up — and through hard work becomes confident and successful.
Guided by Bodhi the toucan, an adventurous journey through Belize’s pristine beaches, rich culture, and the second-largest barrier reef in the world.
A school’s whole vibe changes when the principal brings fun and positive energy into the everyday system.
About
That’s the question an immigration officer asked me the day I landed in Nigeria, twenty-six years ago.
I didn’t have an answer then. I’m not sure I fully do now — but that question never left me. After living across four continents, I still don’t know why I ended up here, in Kano. But the answer has been unfolding, piece by piece, ever since.
It started in the classroom. As a pioneer educator in Kano and Headmistress of Prime Primary School since 2006, I spent two decades reshaping how thousands of children experienced school — not just what they learned, but how safe, seen, and capable they felt while learning it.
Somewhere along the way, I understood that none of it works without kindness. So I started The Kindness Project — scholarships, a school, a growing network of young ambassadors carrying kindness into their own communities.
And then came InnerJoy Ed: the platform born from everything those twenty years taught me, co-founded to bring emotional intelligence to children and educators across the African continent.
The classroom was where it started.
The human being is where it led me.
From the classroom to the inner world.
From a better me to a better we.
Twenty Years
Since 2006, Prime Primary School in Kano has been where the theory got tested against real children, every single day. As Headmistress, I worked closely with teachers and students to shift the day-to-day experience of school — from one driven purely by academics to one that also made space for emotion, connection, and belonging.
The changes weren’t just policy. They were in the everyday moments — how teachers responded, how students related to each other, how the whole school felt. Twenty years, thousands of children, one graduating class at a time.
Thank you for your motherly care, your unwavering commitment to excellence, and for providing a ‘home away from home’ for our children at Prime.Prime Primary Parents · 2025/2026 Graduating Class
With Kindness
Every one of them is an answer to the same question: what does it mean to build a better me, so that we can build a better we?
Little Big Gestures — scholarships, a subsidised school in Kano, and 50+ Youth Kindness Ambassadors worldwide.
Free professional development for underprivileged schools, drawn from twenty years in the classroom.
Booking
Who is in it, what they are carrying, and what you need them to walk out with. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
For general enquiries, you can also reach me directly at anju@innerjoyed.com.