Before There Was a Name,
There Was a Mission
What started as one student's refusal to normalize poverty has become a movement.
Adeolu Timothy
Founder, Cycle 28 Foundation
A Letter From Our Founder
As an undergraduate in 2016, I watched brilliant classmates slowly fade — not because they lacked intelligence or ambition, but because survival left them no space to grow.
So I started teaching.
Just a few students. Borrowed equipment. Late nights. Sometimes my own money to help them eat, commute, and stay focused.
Poverty is not only about lack of opportunity. It is about lack of skill — and the inability to focus long enough to acquire it.
When students learned the right skills, everything changed. Some went from unemployed to earning within months. Some built agencies. Others began earning remotely in foreign currencies. I saw a clear pattern:
When survival pressure is removed and complete skills are taught, transformation becomes inevitable.
What began as informal mentorship grew into hundreds of Catalysts trained and thousands impacted. And that journey became Cycle 28 Foundation.
Today, my commitment remains simple and unshakable:
No young person should remain poor simply because they have not learned the right skill yet.
Through Cycle 28 Foundation, we exist to restore dignity, unlock potential, and give young people the tools to rewrite their future.
This is not just my story.
It is the story we are building together.
From One Student to a Movement
A decade of quiet rebellion against the poverty cycle.
The Spark
Adeolu began teaching informal digital skills peer-to-peer.
The Ripple Effect
Training moved from dorm rooms to rented spaces.
Scaling Through Crisis
The pandemic proved the power of remote work.
The Future
Cycle 28 Foundation was born. Ready to scale across Africa.
What Drives Us
Our Vision
To eradicate poverty at its root by empowering young people with world-class digital skills, removing the survival barriers that block learning, and connecting them to the global digital economy.
Our Mission
To break poverty cycles by transforming young people into globally competitive digital professionals through skills training, survival support, and mentorship.
