A non-governmental organisation, the Jeremiah and Felicia Aderoju Foundation (JFAF), has intensified efforts in supporting students of public schools in the country.
It says the best way to prepare children well for future relevance is to invest in their education.
To this end, the foundation organised a one-day workshop on technical and entrepreneurial skills acquisition for public school students under the Education District Five of Lagos State.
No fewer than 350 of them, mostly in SS2 and SS3, participated in the workshop held in a school hall at Agboju in the Ojo Local Government area of the state.
They were tutored by various resource personnel, including guidance and counsellors, on why they need to discover their talents now that they are still in school and also study hard, what to inform their choice of career, the need to be technology savvy, including knowledge in artificial intelligence, develop the spirit of entrepreneurship notwithstanding their career paths, cultivate good character and collaboration, and have the fear of God in whatever they do, and so forth.
They were also given some 60-leaf notebooks each.
Speaking at the event via Zoom, the founder of the foundation, Dr Elizabeth Olagunju, said that Nigeria has a huge youth population, with the majority from indigent homes, and the foundation is established to support such people and shape their future for socio-economic relevance.
She said she is particularly passionate about investing in children’s education and can therefore do anything humanly possible to support the less privileged in society to acquire the requisite skills and knowledge that will help them achieve their aspirations for life and also make society a better place for all.
While noting that she would want the government to strengthen the study of agriculture and health in the school curriculum from the educational foundation level, she promised that JFAF would not renege on its mandates.
In his own remarks, the director and coordinator of the foundation in Nigeria, Mr Jacob Akintola, emphasised the sole essence of the workshop as one of the initiatives to impact the less privileged young students who are future leaders.
He said the idea is to equip them with the right skills and knowledge that will make them do well in their career paths and life generally.
He announced that the foundation, which is to immortalise the founder’s parents, is ready to sponsor any student who is creative and develops projects that can solve societal problems, especially in the agriculture and health-related sectors.
He said such sponsorship and support would not be limited to the project but would also be extended to the education of the beneficiaries.
Mr. Akintola disclosed that the foundation had carried out some projects, including libraries and boreholes, and also given out scholarships in some underserved schools and communities in Eruwa and Ibadan, both in Oyo State, in the past.
He noted that the foundation extended its activities now to Lagos State for the first time with the workshop and giving of notebooks, adding that the future plans are to spread the gesture across the six educational districts of the state.
He, however, urged the students to make good use of the knowledge gained at the training back home.
Some of the students told the Nigerian Tribune that they learnt new things as well as refreshed on the old knowledge and would certainly help as they move on with their studies.
They thanked the foundation for organising the workshop and called for similar intervention from other CSOs in the country.
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