At first glance, the steel containers parked at the edge of an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp look like ordinary cargo units.
But step inside, and you will find children reading aloud, teachers scribbling on whiteboards, and the hum of a solar-powered fan cutting through the afternoon heat.
For many of the children, some born into displacement, others forced from their homes by conflict, this is their very first classroom.
The initiative, recently modernise and, called SchoolBox, is turning crisis into opportunity by transforming old shipping containers into fully functional, solar-powered classrooms.
Emeka Obiwulu, the founder of The Offshore Lab and the visionary behind SchoolBox spoke exclusively to LEADERSHIP about giving hope to the children through the initiative.
In 2024, Obiwulu visited an IDP camp near the Alau Dam in Borno State, where he witnessed firsthand the toll of conflict and flooding on children’s lives. “There were hundreds of children just sitting around. No school, no books, nothing. It struck me that even as we gave food, we were feeding the body but leaving the mind to starve.”
That experience ignited the idea of a mobile, scalable school that could go where traditional buildings couldn’t. Within months, the first SchoolBox prototype was completed, a 40-foot steel container, retrofitted with desks, solar lighting, ventilation, whiteboards, and even digital learning tablets.
At the IDP camp in Benue, eight-year-old Simi clutches a writing slate with pride. Her family fled their village in Katsina after bandits attacked. “I didn’t go to school before,” she says shyly. “Now, I want to be a teacher.”
Her story is echoed by dozens of children now enrolled in the SchoolBox units. Many have missed years of formal education, but they are finally catching up, thanks to an innovation that was born out of urgency.
Each SchoolBox unit accommodates up to 30 learners and is designed to be climate-resilient, self-sufficient, and rapidly deployable. “We’re not trying to build permanent schools in impermanent spaces.
“We are building durable education for fragile contexts,” Obiwulu said.
Teachers are recruited from host communities and trained specifically in trauma-informed instruction. The model includes offline digital learning tools so pupils can learn at their own pace, regardless of internet connectivity.
For children who have experienced violence, loss, and instability, the structure and safety of a classroom, even if made of steel, is transformative.
The SchoolBox team aims to scale the project to 10,000 units by 2030, serving not just IDP camps but also riverine, desert, and flood-prone communities where schools have never existed.
“Our mission is simple. No child should be denied education because of war, water, or where they were born. If they can not reach the school, the school must reach them,” he added.
