A non-governmental organization, ‘Braiding Beyond Borders Foundation’ has called on governments at various levels to support the empowerment of teens in the country through skills acquisition.
Founded by US-based Francesca Paul, the foundation said it hopes to impact the lives of people, especially the younger generation, through training in various skills.
The NGO’s Coordinator in Nigeria, Usena Omoh Guriase, made the call for improved support from governments and stakeholders while speaking at the graduation ceremony to mark the end of a three-day free skill acquisition training for young children and teenagers on various skills organized by the foundation in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Some of the skills include hair braiding, t-shirt designing, and baking, among others.
Guriase stated, “They (the teenagers) are coming up and trying to find themselves, so she (Francesca Paul) is majorly focusing on empowering these people so that when they grow up, they would possess skills to not just earn, but to make life easier for themselves and for their families too.
“Our training does not just capture teenagers, but for this particular skill acquisition, we decided to focus on teenagers because they are the leaders of tomorrow. So, empowering them is like sowing a seed that will eventually germinate.
“These children are trying to find themselves so we are looking at how we can equip them with skills that will help them navigate the path that they’re trying to trail on.
“I would like to call on the governments and every other interested party to support initiatives like this, not just towards Braid Foundation, but to every platform committed to empowering with skills.
“We believe that if we get more partnerships and more support, we will be able to do more. If you look at what we did today, we had just three days of training. If we have a lot of support, have a lot of people coming around to push this dream forth, we will be able to do even for a month, for weeks and have these children learn skills, gain mastery that they can implement.”
She urged the teens to avail themselves of opportunities to learn a skill as she revealed that the NGO plans on enlarging the program.
Meanwhile, two beneficiaries, Miracle Ifeanyi and Peace Ekanem, 18 and 16 years old respectively thanked the organizers for the training and the opportunity, promising to put what they learned from their T-shirt design and baking classes to good use.
A total of 30 participants benefited from the training and starter packs were made available for those who finished top of their various classes.