Eradication of extreme poverty

The deadline for the MDGs is on the horizon, progress has been made in several areas but more work is needed to be done.

This is my humble call to all stake holders, partners and contributors to the MDGs, the world over to more than ever double their effort towards the actualization to the MDGs by the year 2015 and begin to make preparation for the post 2015 development agenda.

The 2013 MDG report stated that the proportion of people of people living in extreme poverty has been halved at the global level. This suggests that the world reached the poverty reduction target five years ahead of schedule. The report also noted that, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 47% in 1990 to 22% in 2010.

This was possible because of the concerted effort of government, civil society, development partners, non-government organization, several private organizations and individuals. We are not there yet, we will continue to work until extreme poverty become history.

I am particularly excited to be part of the success of the MDGs, in a remote community called; Sabon Afaka, Mando, Igabi Local government Area, Kaduna State, Nigeria in the year 2010. I embark on a specific project to distribute free clothing and material to hundreds of people in the community. The children, youth, widows, woman and men benefited, they where happy that someone remembered them and brought succor to their door step at no cost.

The desire to have at least one extra clothe was evident as you could literally see the youth and children in the community queued up and some struggle to collect their free clothe. It took the help of some of the village chiefs and community head to distribute the clothes and prevent possible stampede.

The crowd present at different location where we distributed was far more than the available materials but we did our best and they were happy we came.

ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY OF THE NIGERIAN YOUTH

INTRODUCTION

The youth is the period between childhood and Adulthood. The Nigerian youth like youth from the rest of the world are active and vibrant set of individuals and excited about learning but the environment they have found themselves has made them unemployable.

THE WAY FORWARD

u Development of Skills

u Training and Re-training

u Hand-on and Hard Working

u Academic Re-Orientation

u Development of Educational System

Development of Skills
An average Nigerian youth is concern about certificate because they live in an environment that celebrate certificate rather than skills acquisition. An average employer is after what you have to offer. Nigerian youth need to development hand-on skills and look beyond certificate.
Certificate is good but what gives it value is the holder.

Training and Re-training
Nigeria youth need to avail themselves the opportunity to trained and embrace continuous training in order to remain relevance in the society. There are young people in Nigeria involved in the production of concrete blocks manually, if they are expose to training in handling advance concrete block making machine and they will be come employable in companies that produces concrete blocks.

Hand-on and Hard Working
An average Nigerian youth prefers the easy way out of every thing. The ‘get rich quick’ syndrome has eaten deep into an average Nigerian youth. There is no substitute for hard working, they need to refuse laziness and embrace hard-working.

Academic Re-Orientation
An average Nigerian University Graduate can not practice what he or she has learnt in the four-wall of the classroom. Many went to school for the sake of attendance not for knowledge acquisition. The youth need to change there orientation about learning and seek to acquire knowledge.

Development of Educational System
The government need to invest more than ever before into the educational system. Private and non-governmental organisation alike need to be involved in the development of education, do it yourself and not leave it to the government alone. Nigerian youth are been trained to seek employment and not productive .

In support of MDGs Achieve universal primary education

The goal 2 of the MDGs is to achieve universal primary education, in support of this goal Olap Foundation embarked on free distribution of hundreds of MDG branded writing materials (Note books, biros, pencil) and cartons of white chalk to Government Day Primary and Secondary School Sabon Afaka Mando Kaduna State Nigeria.

This note books clearly state all the Millennium Development Goals on the cover, this creates awareness on MDGs to the beneficiaries and their environment. It has been observed that a high percentage of people who live in our local communities are not aware of the MDGs, even in communities that has benefitted from one MDG project or the other.

At Olap Foundation, we believe that, creating awareness of Millennium Development Goals to the general public is paramount to achieving the goals and it helps communities that have benefitted from MDG project to appreciate and ensure the maintenance of such project.

Kindly vote for my big idea Personal Hygiene Box

Personal Hygiene Box (PHB) is nominated for the Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition - an international contest launched by The Goi Peace Foundation, Stiftung Entrepreneurship (Berlin) and UNESCO. Vote for me now: https://www.youth-competition.org/groups/entrepreneurship-competition-2013/contests/2/1227 The award ceremony is during Germany's biggest entrepreneurship event, the Entrepreneurship Summit in Berlin, October 11-12, 2014.

Towards Environmental Sustainability

Ensuring proper waste disposal

MDG Goal 7 “ensure environmental sustainability”

Donation of twelve (12) waste collection bins to Sabon Afaka community, Igabi LGA of Kaduna State in 2010.  This is my contribution to the actualization of the Millennium Development Goal 7 in that small community. A community without a culture of proper waste disposal, residents takes to the drainage and open field to dump refuse. This led to blockage in the available drainages in the community and accumulation of stagnant dirty water which aid the breeding of mosquitoes that causes malaria. Dumping refuse in open field within the community also led to the spread of air-borne diseases which is dangerous to the health of the people and their general hygiene is compromised.  

This is a common trend in Nigeria, even in urban communities; the culture of proper waste disposal must be cultivated. We have modern houses without waste bin and drainages and the resident often dump refuse indiscriminately around their houses or any undeveloped property. We need to put an end to this unhealthy practice and ensure we maintain a clean and green environment.

Regular environmental sanitation should be observed in our communities and government should empower environmental sanitation agencies to inspect from street to street, domestic properties, industries and ensure people comply with the environmental and sanitation laws of the country and apply proper sanctions when necessary.

The challenge of environmental sustainability needs to be holistically attended to; from the problem of desert encroachment in the north, erosion and land slide in the west, to oil spillage in the south and flood in most part of the country. The government and agencies saddled with such responsibility needs to be proactive and pragmatic in their approach to sustaining the environment. The plan by the government to build green walls to cover several thousand kilometers to prevent desert encroachment and prevention of oil spillage and cleaning of already affected community should go beyond the pages of newspapers but to reality.

The indiscriminate discharge of exhaust, burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests needs to be controlled to prevent the continuous depletion of the ozone layer and green house effect causing global warming. Liquid chemicals from industries into our rivers need to be addressed because it poses great danger to our aquatic animals and unemployment to fishermen. Companies with such chemical liquid waste need to build water treatment plant and ensure the liquid is safe before discharge into our rivers.

We all need to work together to ensure environmental sustainability and preserve nature, it begins with you and me, if we do the needful in our sphere of contact and mobilize others around us to do likewise; together we can make the world a better place and ensure environmental sustainability. 

Millennium Development Goals video spot

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

Needs Assessment Sabon Afaka Igabi LGA Kaduna Nigeria

This is a report on the successful conduct of needs assessment in Sabon Afaka, igabi LGA. Kaduna state Nigeria in the year 2010. I started by paying a courtesy visit to the Afaka District head Aliyu Abdul Wahab Ummar (Rubun Zazzau) to pay homage and introduced myself and project plans to the community. I got the royal blessing and I was introduced to other chiefs in the community. I also visited Alh. Isyaku Abdulwahab Umar (sarkin Lema) where I was introduced to the community youth leader and the local youth association called “Gbagyi lakukala Development Association” Mando Kaduna State.

I observed the community lacked access to portable water and few houses depends on well water while several others had to walk long distance to get access to well water. I also observed that the community does not have a culture of proper waste disposal, so people dump refuse in front of their houses, in the drainage and all around. This unhealthy practice had adverse effect on the health of the community; especially children who play around and most times walk bear footed. Children in this community do not have good clothes, they could wear a pair of clothes for several days until its turn on their body and they have very poor personal hygiene. The community also had a lot of widows with little or no help from anyone to cater for their immediate needs and children.

A visit to the community health care center shows that a lot of maternity women are being attended to regularly and assistance was needed. I engaged the senior matron in a conversation as regards the needs of the health center and how I can come in to be of assistance to them. The most obvious of their needs was that they carry out delivery without proper HIV test for pregnant women and in the case of infected mother, their inability to determine their HIV status makes it difficult to protect the unborn child and increase the risk of mother to child transmission of HIV. They had several other needs, some which were bigger than I could attend to in a space of one year.

I also visited the community Government Primary and Secondary School at “Sabon Afaka Mando” I had the opportunity to speak with the head mistress and principal respectively. We had a fruitful discussion and came up with several things I could do to enhance teaching and learning process and how to train the students as “MDG Advocacy Agents” in the school and possible creation of MDG Advocacy Club.

How to conduct a successful needs assessment

Needs assessment is a process; it involves identifying or investigating the needs of a community, organization, country, school, health care system…, in order to design specific project to meet identified needs.

Component of Needs assessment

1.    Carefully identify specific need as it affect the community or your area of interest

2.    Analyze each need and come up with multiple possible solution

3.    Design a comprehensive solution that best meet the needs from the options available

4. Consider if you have the required skills, knowledge and financial capacity to implement the project

5.    Explore possibility of having people join you to make the project happen

6.    Consider the possible challenges that the implementation of the project posses and ensure you have the support of the community.

How to conduct needs assessment

1.    Survey

This involves physical presence at the community to get first hand information and observation of various needs and challenges of the target community. After which you design a questionnaire to investigate the people in the community to enable you determine their perception of their needs and if they are willing to be assisted. Because if the community does not consider the need you are trying to address as a problem that affects them, it may be difficult to get their support on your project. Ensure you carry them along from the beginning of your project.

2.    Available Data

You can search for existing data and information on specific needs of a community from government or other organization who have conducted a survey or research of the specific need you intend to develop project for.  As long as the information available to you is valid and meet your project objectives, you can now determine the specific project you want to embark on, either development of infrastructure or short-term project; such as sensitization training programs or empowerment seminars.

3.    Consultation

This includes going to communities and holding community forum or town hall meetings. This is done by gathering all major stake holders in such community to deliberate on specific issues as regards the needs of the community and come up with possible solution and project.

Analyzing Needs Assessment Result

Extract data from your questionnaire and tabulate them, this will enable you identify common trend in the community; when everyone is talking about the same problem, it become obvious that such issue affect the community at large. And if there are certain areas you were considering before the needs assessment and the community seems to contradict, you can make adjustment accordingly.

Now you can go ahead to perfect your project plans and identify projects that affect the generality of the people and improve their standard of living.