By Joan Odafe
Lagos – Call to Love Initiative (Call2Luv) a Non-Governmental 0rganisation (NGO), on Saturday ended its week-long summer camp, where it trained 113 children on vocational skills and behavioural attitudes, to help enrich their lives.
The NGO also gave out scholarships to participants who excelled in various categories.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme was organised by the NGO in collaboration with the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), Lagos Branch.
The camp was aimed at giving children from low-cost schools and orphanages a platform to acquire skills they would usually not have the opportunity to.
The vocational skills learnt included sewing, soap making and coding.
The children were also trained in behavioural attitudes such as etiquette and interpersonal relationships.
The Chief Executive Officer of Call2Luv, Mrs Omowunmi Ajila, told NAN that the programme was to enrich the lives of the children through social development.
“It’s like our gateway to bring in our beneficiaries; our focus is on children from low cost schools, as well as orphanages.
“We’ve been able to identify that most children in this category usually don’t have access to the kind of learning we are giving them.
“We relate with them for about one week during the summer camp; that way we are able to identity the gaps we need to fill,’’ she said.
Ajila explained that after the camp, follow-up on support classes would be organised on weekends for children who did well in different categories, to help enhance their skills.
She said: “We’re going to have the coding class; the reading club, to enhance their reading; entrepreneurship class, to teach them that they’re not too young to make money.
“We have support that we give them in the next one year; we assign mentors to them, they visit them at home to understand their circumstances and environment to identify where they need help.’’
Ajila commended the Red Cross Society for making their facility available for the programme.
She called on individuals and organisations for support, to help enrich the programme.
She also encouraged volunteers to register on: www.call2luv.org
Mr Olakunle Lasisi, Secretary, NRCS, Lagos Branch, who noted that about 20 children from the society’s orphanage and school participated in the programme, said the event was aimed at helping humanity.
“I observed that our children were more eager to use the computer; everybody wants to do something on the system. People want to stitch their clothes themselves.
“They’re more conscious of greeting and showing appreciation, even for things that happened some days ago,’’ he said.
Lasisi called for more support to make the programme sustainable.
Ruth Ogbaja, a participant, who received a scholarship of N45,000 as best overall student in arts, said she learnt to be calm and focused while drawing.
“I made a mistake while painting but when I used black paint on it, it covered it and made my work more beautiful,’’ she said.
Another Participant, Precious Harrison, said the programme was helping her fulfil her dream of becoming a seamstress.
“I learned how to use needles and cut fabrics but I didn’t like the art class because I don’t like drawing,’’ she said.
Also, Emmanuel Chika, a Participant, said he learnt how to draw and move animated shapes in the coding class.
Mr Simon Ogbaja, a Parent, whose daughter received scholarship, said he was surprised at what his daughter learnt at the summer camp.
“Honestly I’m still surprised. I didn’t show any interest because I thought it was a casual outing.
“I just came today not to disappoint her,’’ he said.
Another Parent, Mrs Ozigara Chika, said she observed a lot of changes in her son.
“He also learnt how to sew and make liquid soap,’’ Chika said.