Unskilled to Skilled (U2S)

So today we had a brief discussion around poverty, vulnerability and the need for youth skill learning. This session was moderated by Mr John Ajogwu. 

This session brought together representatives from the Government, Church and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

Furthermore, this session served as a prelude to our project called Unskilled to Skilled (U2S). This project seeks to train 30 youth in Enugu State on various skills. Some of these skills include proposal writing, business management, financial literacy, graphic design etc.

We are glad that at the end of this session our participants learnt a whole lot around these issues. Also, they once again reaffirmed their support and commitment towards this project. This is because; as most of them stated “the importance of skill learning amongst youth cannot be overemphasized”. 

We look forward therefore to a great project ahead.

Below are some of the pictures from today

A REPORT OF THE SECOND" YOUNG ACTIVISTS NETWORK TO END FGM" WORKSHOP HELD AT SIRP, NIGERIA ON THURSDAY 18TH MARCH 2021. TOPIC: FUNDRAISING AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

    The workshop started by 10:30am with an opening prayer. We thereafter entertained an opening remark from Dr. Chris Ugwu (The ED of SIRP). He pointed out that Enugu state has passed the law against FGM and whoever that is still engaging in this practice is violating the law against women and girl's right in Enugu State. He went on also to say that FGM is a gender based violence and should be ended. This is because; we are all humans, created by the same God and should be given equal rights.

      After the opening remark, the participants introduced themselves and the training began with the first facilitator in the person of Dr. Daniel Ugwu who trained us on fundraising.  This session started with a definition of fundraising.
Fundraising as he stated was the seeking of financial support for charity, cause and other enterprise.  He went further to explain various ways of fundraising such as; organizing donation events, placing donation boxes in strategic areas, using social media, being in the spotlight i.e. constantly posting about your organization and what they advocate for.
He also trained participants on the importance of mapping and how to build strong and effective relationship with donors.
       

After this session, there was a 5 minutes game to energize the participants. This was done to usher in the next facilitator.  The next facilitator Ms Nene Florence trained participants on social media management. She began by defining what social media is and the importance of using social media to End FGM.
Social media as she said was a means of communication and one of the easiest ways to pass a message to a large audience. The participants were thereafter trained on the management of the 5 most used social media platforms. This includes: Facebook,  Instagram , Twitter , WhatsApp , LinkedIn  and how to effectively use them to reach your audience.

There was also another 5 minutes game after this session. Thereafter the participants were grouped into 5 and given questions to answer collectively. These questions bordered on fundraising and social media management. Afterwards there was one person from each group who came out to present their answers to the rest of the participants.
   We later had refreshments and a closing remark from Barr. Somtochukwu Nnamdi (The Gender/Partnerships Head at SIRP).
The workshop thereafter ended at 3:30pm.

Reported by
Rita Chinyere

SIRP's TRAINING FOR 15 YOUNG ACTIVISTS ON USING THE MEDIA TO END FGM IN ENUGU STATE

 A LUCID NARRATION OF OUR TRAINING SEMINAR*

The seminar to sensitize activists on the use of the media to end FGM which was held at the office of Society for The Improvement of Rural People(SIRP) on the 18th and 19th of February was a mind-blowing session for all and sundry who participated in it. 

The seminar commenced with opening remarks from  Dr. Chris Ugwu, Executive Director of SIRP, who gave a full presentation on how the training was to be held. He narrated how the training would spark off in order for the seminar to have the expected result it was aimed at. Also, he implored the fifteen activists who were participants during the seminar to give the training their best of focus and attentions so that they could acquire the necessary skills to curb and end FGM in society. Dr Chris Ugwu also extended his speech by letting the activists to know of the maximum joy he felt by the eagerness of few selected people who were keen to dedicate their times in making FGM a thing of history before the year 2030.

The meeting went into another phase were intensive training was facilitated by an expert in the field of FGM and Media Technology in the name of Mrs Chinasa. She opened the floor with utmost appreciation to the Wallace Global foundation (WGF) and SIRP for organising such an innovative training seminar for activists in Enugu State.

She expressed her joy not only because she was the facilitator, but also for the willingness to eradicate this menace called FGM by few activists in Enugu State.

Mrs Chinasa therefore commenced the seminar with what FGM was, how devastating it was to the girl child. the debilitating effect it was to society at large if not curbed in time. Mrs Chinasa gave a full presentation using illustrations and apparent simplified model of teaching to equip the activists with modern tools and technological media instruments that can be used to spread the campaign against FGM and to also share some highlights on why it should be curbed before 2030. She gave a detailed information on why these media equipment should be adopted by every activists or organization fighting this huge turbulent weapon of destruction called FGM on the female gender. She equally gave a narrative explanation on how swift and easy this media instruments can work for us to get the anticipated results we aim at. Mrs Chinasa made the activists to know that in a world overly controlled by technology, solutions are easily proffered by people via the Internet these days and that activists should continue in this manner to prepare themselves with more of such training they were undergoing in order to achieve the desired goals of their activism.

She ended her training with feedbacks from the activists and she further gave answers to questions being asked which made everyone to be happy after the training.

From the participants we had, we understood that they were elated beyond words because the training were conducted on a simplified manner without any form of ambiguity.

Our seminar ended with showers of testimony from the fifteen participants who were so eager to learn more from the facilitator. Clearly speaking, the training were well conducted and the desired goal was accomplished on our first seminar.

ReplyForward

Some UPDATES

 

We are excited and humbled to share two very important news with you all. The first news is with regards to a partnership with Slum Aid. Slum Aid is an organization based in the United Kingdom (UK), which works actively through the use of volunteers to create positive changes in local communities. This new found partnership with Slum Aid is therefore geared towards teaching various children and youth here in Nigeria on English Language. This training is further aimed at improving their use of English Language.

Furthermore, we are also glad to announce that we are now a member of the Global Network for Youth Action (GNYA). GNYA is a global coalition, which seeks to develop, connect and inform young people through civic education. This education is aimed at increasing their involvement in promoting democracy and good governance in their communities and countries. We therefore look forward to contributing our own quota in ensuring that this happens here in Nigeria.

New Membership Alert

We are glad to announce that we are now a member of the We Make Change Movement. This is a movement, which brings together social enterprises, NGOs, companies and individuals. Furthermore, these are group who have come together with a shared purpose to create positive changes and make sustainable impact in the world.

From the foregoing therefore, through this new membership; we will be working on various projects with a set of volunteers offered to us by We Make Change. These projects as you would expect will be various life changing and highly impactful projects, which will be making tremendous impacts in the lives of various vulnerable group here in Nigeria.

We are indeed once again glad and humbled to be a part of this.

A CERTIFICATION CEREMONY IN OKPANKU COMMUNITY OF ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

On the 17th Day of November 2020, we organized a certification ceremony for our End FGM Champions in Okpanku community of Enugu State, Nigeria. This certification ceremony was organized by us with a kind support from A Seed of Change (Canada). This ceremony was targeted at both celebrating and recognizing our end FGM champions in the community.

This event started pretty much late at exactly 12pm due to some complications, which was beyond our control. We started off with an opening prayer and also some brief introductions. After this, we listened to an address by the community leader Igwe RA Chukwu. He spoke glowingly about the good works of SIRP at the community. He specially thanked us for the various activities, which we have undertaken at the community and said that the community was indebted to us. Furthermore, he encouraged all those who will be certified as our champions to see it as a call to service to God and humanity.

After this, we were also privileged to listen to Barrister Somtochukwu Ugwu who is the Gender Head/ Partnerships Officer at SIRP. In his remarks, he spoke extensively about the reasoning behind SIRP’s efforts at the community. He stated that this project became necessary as there were great negative effects occasioned by FGM at the community. These negative effects as he stated ranged from health challenges to educational and economic empowerment challenges. This has therefore necessitated this project. He went on further to tell everyone present that this project wouldn’t have been possible without the kind support of A Seed of Change (Canada). He thereafter encouraged everyone who will be recognized on that day to make good use of this opportunity.

After this, we were further privileged to listen to various remarks from a cross-section of participants at the event. Finally, we thereafter witnessed presentation of certificates to various participants at the event. These certificates were presented to over 30 persons who have participated in one way or the other throughout the project. At the end of this event, one can see that these certificates meant so much to these participants as they were all appreciative and beamed with smile. This event finally came to an end at exactly 2:30 pm with a vote of thanks and closing prayers said by one of the project beneficiaries.

A WOMEN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (WEE) PROJECT IN OKPANKU COMMUNITY OF ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

 

In October 2020, we collaborated with A Seed of Change (Canada) to organize a skill acquisition program for various unskilled and unemployed young women and girls here in Enugu State, Nigeria. We specifically organized this event because of the high rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria. Currently in Nigeria, it is estimated that 16 million youth in Nigeria are unemployed. The foregoing according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) accounts for 23.1% of the Nigerian population.

In a bid to mitigate the foregoing staggering statistics, we targeted 15 young women and girls from Okpanku community of Enugu State. We empowered them by training them on how to bake various snacks like buns, fish rolls, fish pies and small chops. This training is in clear alignment with our definition of Women Economic Empowerment (WEE). We define WEE as the process by which women and girls gain the ability to make decisions not just for themselves, but also for others.

All in all, we sure had fun and were also fulfilled implementing this activity as we made a tremendous impact in the lives of our beneficiaries. The goal for us still remains the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which provides for gender equality and women empowerment by 2030.