By Vivian Ihechu
Lagos – A youth- focused NGO, Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), in collaboration with Devcoms, on Wednesday organised a talent exhibition of Skills for Life (S4L) project for young girls in “not-so’’ privileged communities in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Skills for Life is an employability, literacy and leadership enhancement intervention project for girls aged 16 to 20 years.
The project was specifically designed for the girls living in the communities of Ajegunle and Mushin areas of Lagos State, as well as Molete and Oke-Ado in Oyo State.
Its aim is to enhance livelihood skills of girls through job placements, apprentice schemes and experiential partnership learning.
In her remarks, Ms Tolulope Osoba, YEF Programme Manager, said, “ Today, we have an exhibition of various works to showcase what our girls in the Skills for Life (S4L) project have done since June.
“The S4L project, funded by Standard Chartered Bank, is a literacy and empowerment project for young girls who have been through our GOAL programmes while they were in school.
“The GOAL programme is basically a girl empowerment project where girls are taught life skills and sports to boost their confidence.
“We use sports to teach them about menstruation, leadership skills, time management, academic excellence, all while they are in school.’’
Osoba said that the S4L project engages those in JSS 3, while during the long holiday in August, they went to a place of their intended choice of career and job shadow.
“They understudy the professionals for three to four weeks, for them to be sure that they still want to pursue that career, be it law, engineering or medicine,’’ she said.
According to her, the second group of girls for S4L is those who have finished secondary school.
“While they are awaiting results and not doing anything at home, they learn a vocation such as hair dressing, sewing, bead-making and baking.
“The whole idea is for them to acquire skills to be self-sufficient and financially and morally disciplined,’’ Osoba said.
Also, Ms Joke Adu of the Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd., said: “Standard Chartered Bank decided to develop this initiative to provide girls, particularly those in the rural communities and not so privileged backgrounds with basic skills.
“These basic tools are around financial education, peer pressure management, savings, life skills and skills acquisition.
“Education is very important, whether formal or informal; when girls are knowledgeable and can take care of themselves, they can take care of their families and nation better,’’ Adu said.
Also, Mrs Akin-Jimoh, the Executive Secretary of YEF, said that the programme was borne of the need to empower the girl-child.
“Woman is the home builder; if a girl is abused or not well-equipped as a child, you are reducing her chances of raising good children and being a stable wife and mother.
“It is a girl that gets pregnant, drops out of school or gets delayed in her education when pregnancy occurs, goes through the risk of VVF, possible maternal death, emotional distress, trauma and stigmatisation.
“It is important to empower the girl-child to be confident, skilled and well-behaved; that way, she will not be deceived, compelled or lured to engage in any anti-social conduct or become promiscuous,’’ Akin-Jimoh said.
One of the participants, Miss Chiamaka Chukwu, a 15-year-old student, said she was happy to be part of the programme.
“I went for job shadowing at an engineering firm and the experience was tough, but interesting.
“I still want to be an engineer and to achieve this, I have to remain focused and take my studies more seriously,’’ Chukwu said. (NAN)