Basketball helped him escape poverty. Now he’s giving back — and drilling wells back home
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ajayi launched a foundation in 2019 to support youth in his Nigerian hometown.
- Annual basketball camps now include food, water and hygiene aid for 200+ kids.
- Kansas City businesses and residents back Ajayi’s volunteer-based nonprofit work.
Basketball gave Adeola Ajayi a way out of his life in Sango Ota, Nigeria, as a teenager in 2009.
More than a decade later, it brings him home each year to give back to the community he grew up in.
With the support of his employers at a KC luxury apartment building, local businesses and residents, Ajayi launched The Adeola Ajayi Foundation in 2019. Each year the foundation hosts a free basketball camp in Sango Ota for local children facing the same economic challenges Ajayi experienced as a child.
Support for the foundation has grown each year and allowed the foundation’s work to develop beyond basketball clinics. In addition to building a community basketball court, the foundation has helped drill two water wells and was able to supply food, water, shoes and personal care products to the more than 200 children who attended this year’s clinic.
The camp is held each spring in Sango Ota and is open to any child between the age of 4 to 17. Participants receive coaching and mentorship from volunteers with the foundation.
Ajayi grew up in a 9-by-9-foot apartment with his parents and three siblings. It was a tenement home, meaning common areas like the kitchen and bathroom were shared with other residents.
“We were poor,” Ajayi said. “Sometimes we would wake up in the morning and we don’t even have food. We don’t have anything. So my escape was the basketball court.”
As a child, Ajayi saw a poster of Seattle SuperSonics players Gary Payton and Olumide Oyedeji at a coach’s house. Seeing Oyedeji, a Nigerian player who was a second-round pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, sparked a realization.
If Oyedeji could make it out, he could too.
Ajayi earned a high school basketball scholarship to play in the U.S. in 2009. He initially caught the attention of college scouts, but injuries affected his junior season. Ajayi wasn’t recruited to play college ball.
He remained determined to play and ultimately walked on at the College of the Ozarks. Ajayi’s injuries prevailed, requiring multiple surgeries and forcing him to retire after two seasons.
After graduation, Ajayi moved to the Kansas City area where he eventually began working as a concierge at One Light Luxury Apartments in the Power & Light District.
While he was more than 6,000 miles from home, Facebook gave him glimpses into the continued cycle of poverty that residents in his community continued to face due to the lack of running water, proper infrastructure and other economic factors.
“I’m able to go to restaurants and eat,” Ajayi said. “I have shoes, I have clothing, I have everything. But there are so many children back home that don’t have the opportunity of what I have now.”
He felt a sense of urgency to take action.
“Every time I see the kids, I see myself through them,” Ajayi said. “Because that is the same thing that I went through and I don’t want any other kids to go through that. I don’t think any child deserves to experience what I experienced when I was little.”
That desire to see change led Ajayi to develop what is now the Adeola Ajayi Foundation. He remains in his role at One Light, and with the support of One Light’s parent company, Cordish, and his direct supervisors he established the foundation in 2019.
The foundation is supported by a wide range of local businesses, in addition to individual contributions. Local bar KC Hooley House, glass services company Kryger Glass and the Power & Light District are among the foundation’s partners.
The Power & Light District, in fact, has been a central supporter of the foundation from its early years.
“This year, we donated 300 backpacks filled with hygiene essentials, which were distributed to residents of (Sango) Ota, directly addressing a critical need,” Dana Witt Fulks, director of marketing and communications for the Kansas City Power & Light District wrote in an email. “Beyond direct material contributions, we also utilize our promotional platforms to help raise awareness for the Foundation’s work, encouraging broader community engagement. It’s a meaningful partnership that reflects the kind of impact we aim to support.”
Witt Fulks said Ajayi’s personal commitment to the cause makes the foundation stand out.
“His passion is genuine, and the impact is real,” she wrote. “He donates his own time and energy to meet specific needs and lift up others.”
Ajayi said no one at the foundation, including himself, is paid for the work. It’s all on a volunteer basis, allowing every dollar to go toward the kids.
He credits Kansas City’s residents and businesses for the success of the foundation.
“Just think about it, a little kid from a 9 by 9 room in Sango Ota in Nigeria,” he said. “Nobody knows me, but I came into a city where I was accepted. They trust me, they trust our mission, they trust our goal and everything we do.”
More than 15 years ago, Ajayi earned the one-way ticket out of Sango Ota he had dreamed of.
As an adult, he has built a revolving door between his two homes. And when he returns each year looking to provide more for those in his first community, he has the support of the community he built in KC behind him.
