As part of efforts to put teenagers on the right path and inculcate in them the right virtue that will ensure they explore their potentials to take on their world, a nongovernmental organisation, the Gender Alive Foundation, last week held a five-day free boot camp under its International leadership Academy for pre-teen and teenagers across the country in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The International leadership Academy with the theme “I Can” availed 60 pre-teen and teenagers that were selected by a team of the trustees of the foundation based on their interactions on their application forms.
The 60 were selected without bias to tribe, gender or religion to enable them harness their hidden potentials and interact with their peers from other backgrounds in order to teach them the basic requirements of perseverance, unity, team spirit and need to be accommodating of others peculiarities on the climb to greatness.
The basic vision of the camp was to avail the beneficiaries who are both secondary school and university students the opportunity for personal development as well as equipping their leadership potentials while relating with others and learning from them.
Speaking on the camp which is the first edition for the leadership academy, the founder of Gender Alive Foundation, Comrade Jadesola Ajibola, stated that” the leadership academy of the foundation is focused on raising well behaved and God fearing teens that will find their purpose in their teenage years and focus on their future as part of efforts to turn around the tide of moral decadence among youths, adding that the number of participants will increase year in, year out to accommodate more teenagers.
“Our vision is to set these teens to have the right attitude and go back to their schools and communities to be ambassadors of the foundation who will spread the gospel of right attitude and hard work to their peers. They have gone through a crash course with the Nigeria Red Cross and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to speak about drug use and abuse among their peers, learn basic first aid techniques and generally be prepared to be models of integrity in their immediate environment.
“They were divided into groups and they selected among themselves group leaders to execute projects on drama, public speaking, arts and craft and other activities that tasked their brains. I am impressed that among themselves, they came out with solid projects and their team spirit and respect for each other is unbelievable. It was difficult to believe that most of them never met before the camp. And I can say if we have more teenagers like this, the future of the country will be secured.
“We had children from orphanage homes both Christian and Islamic based as well as others from various social backgrounds and they all interacted well with no one feeling superior to others. These shows that xhildren have a good mindset before they are corrupted by the society and we should do more to clear their mind of biases and toxicity. I appreciate all our sponsors both individuals and corporate that made this a reality because these 60 and their instructors were in camp for five full days free of charge with accommodation and feeding sorted through sponsorship. I enjoin other well meaning Nigerians to embrace such programmes so that we can catch these children young and set them on the right part,” she added.
The camp which took place in the Institute of Church and Society worked towards transforming the children, boosting their logical and intellectual capacity and motivating them to be the best version of themselves by learning new skills, mentorship, various breakout and practical interactive sessions.
One of the speakers, Dr Kunle Awotiku, CEO of UNIPLAN Intergrated Services Limited, who took them on steps to career development, stated that career building requires attention to goals and to all that occurs on the journey towards achieving these goals, advising the teens to stay focus and continue with their career journeys shunning distraction of all kinds.
They also had a legal session taken by Barrister Foluso Oladapo who described illegal activities as action carried out for unlawful purposes and is not limited to certain behavior like substance use, assault, getting into fight with violence, to mention a few.
He noted that the consequences of illegal activities can make teens’ career aspiration suffer and sometimes make them lose educational opportunities and charged the participants to stay out of trouble, as being involved with risky situations can easily become a habit.
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