Educator · Speaker · Founder, The Kindness Project
A better me makes a better we.
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
The trigger is never the child. It’s the internal state of the teacher.
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
Everything traces back to one idea: kindness is a skill, and it can be built.
Three organisations, each an answer to that belief, built for a different room.
EduKind
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
Kindness: redefining strength in connection.
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: Redefining Strength in Connection
“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
Where I’ve spoken.
All Northern Schools Conference (ANSC)
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.
Sacred Heart College for Women
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. An Entrepreneurship Cell talk on emotional intelligence and the “inner battery” for 300 students and staff, drawn from InnerJoy Ed.
SEWA International Nigeria
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.
ECHO — Center for Juvenile Justice
Bangalore, India. A talk and Kindness Project gifting session with young people at the centre.
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
EduKind
The professional-development arm of The Kindness Project.
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.
The keynote
One idea, one practical tool. A staff briefing, an assembly, or a conference opener.
The keynote, with practice
The full arc, plus a guided practice the whole room does together — seated, eyes open, nothing embarrassing.
The workshop
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.
School & faculty PD
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
Portable tools, not a nice feeling that fades by Thursday.
- 01A named response for each state. Recognising what’s happening internally before it shows up in how you treat a child or a colleague.
- 02The mechanism, in plain language. Why the trigger is never the child — and what to do with that once you understand it.
- 03A culture shift, not just a lesson. The same shift I introduced as Headmistress at Prime Primary School — from a school driven purely by academics to one that also makes room for emotion, connection, and belonging.
- 04Language teachers can actually use. “A teacher can never pour from an empty cup” — simple enough to repeat in a staff room, true enough to change how a day goes.
Books
Eight children’s books, using storytelling to teach what a lecture can’t.
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.
Namaste Naija
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.
Through My Eyes
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.
From Dreams to Schools
The inspiring journey of Sauda Imam
A girl from Kano, Nigeria turns challenges into triumphs — from dreaming big to founding schools that empower children.
A Bouquet of Friends
We bloom in friendship
Girls from different cultures, each represented by a flower, celebrating friendship across differences.
Ms. Simi Silverspoons
Simi loves to sing but isn’t very good at it. She doesn’t give up — and through hard work becomes confident and successful.
Bodhi’s Belizean Adventures
Guided by Bodhi the toucan, an adventurous journey through Belize’s pristine beaches, rich culture, and the second-largest barrier reef in the world.
Is Your School Cool?
A school’s whole vibe changes when the principal brings fun and positive energy into the everyday system.
I Hate School
A story that meets kids where they are, before helping them see school in a different light.
About
“What is your mission?”
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.
- Master’s in Educational PsychologyFoundation for two decades of classroom and school leadership work.
- Headmistress, Prime Primary SchoolKano, Nigeria · since 2006.
- Eight children’s booksUsing storytelling to teach emotion, empathy and kindness.
- 2025 Rotary Vocational AwardRotary Club of Kano, for community development through The Kindness Project.
With Kindness
Two missions. One belief.
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?
EduKind
Free professional development for underprivileged schools, drawn from twenty years in the classroom.
Booking
Tell me about your room.
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.
- Audiences
- School faculty & professional development · Conferences · Community organisations · Youth groups
- Based in
- Kano, Nigeria. Available nationally and internationally.
- Also available
- Virtual keynotes and remote workshop series.