On Thursday
November 24, 2011, LEAP Africa celebrated five young leaders at its 8th
Annual Nigerian Youth Leadership Awards at MUSON Centre, Lagos. The
winners: Oladipupo Ajiroba,
Babatunde David, Babafemi Oyediran, Tolulope Sangosanya and Priscillia
Usiobaifo were showcased for their exemplary efforts to creating positive
social impact in communities across Nigeria.
Every year, LEAP
solicits applications and nominations of youth who have initiated social change
projects in their local communities.
After a rigorous selection process, ten nominees are chosen by an
independent panel of judges and the five winners are announced at the annual
awards event.
At the 8th Awards, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, Minister
of Youth Development, in his keynote address, encouraged the winners to remain
committed to their positive initiatives across Nigeria. He also
enjoined Nigerian youth to be more positive, optimistic and involved in change
efforts. The second speaker, Mr. Tonye Cole, CEO, SAHARA Group Nigeria,
challenged the youth present to be prepared to strive for the change that they
hope to see in Nigeria.
LEAP also
celebrated beneficiaries of its Leadership, Ethics and Civics (LEC) Programme
in public secondary schools in Anambra, Lagos and Ogun States at the event.
Outstanding schools and student groups were recognized for their commitment to
improving the lives of individuals within their local communities.
The evening
ended with a thrilling live performance by Chydinma, who was joined on stage by
the LEC students in celebration of their awards. Over 800 guests were at the
event.
Established in
2004, the Annual Nigerian Youth Leadership Awards is a means to formally
acknowledge the difference young Nigerians are making all around the country
and to let more youth know that they have the power to address the nation’s
most pressing issues. The youth
are not the leaders of tomorrow; they are the leaders of today, and
increasingly young people are starting to recognize that through dedication,
creativity and accountability they can create powerful change.
The Annual
Nigerian Youth Leadership Awards is always one of LEAP’s most highly
anticipated events of the year bringing young people from across the nation
together to learn from inspirational stories of young change agents, gain
insights from experienced leaders.
MEET THIS YEAR'S WINNERS
Oladipupo Ajiroba
Age: 24
INITIATIVE: The
Environment Advocates/Managers TEAM
Ajiroba Oladipupo is a young
environmentalist, climate change activist and youth advocate. He graduated from
Olabisi Onabanjo University with a degree in Botany. He also holds a diploma in
Youth & Migration from the World Bank.
His interest in environmental issues
was born from challenges he faced as a child, when he was diagnosed with acute
bronchitis due to air pollutants. This challenge ignited his passion to learn
more about ecological issues and to safeguard his natural environment. More
specifically, it inspired him to establish The Environment Advocates/Managers (TEAM) in 2010.
TEAM utilizes interactive youth-to-youth workshops,
quarterly forums and field-volunteerism to build youth awareness and
understanding of environmental management. Over 500 University of Ibadan
students have benefited directly from TEAM
workshops. 1200 secondary school students in Ibadan have also benefitted
from TEAM’s environmental clubs and environment protection activities such as -
tree planting exercises, gardening practices and more.
Given his
interest in the natural environment, Ajiroba facilitated TEAM’s partnership with
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA)/Leventis Project to
supply high-yield seedlings to local farmers in Apete, Ibadan in an effort to
boost their productivity. In addition, the partnership has provided the farmers
with access to markets. As a result of the intervention, the framers have
recorded increase in productivity and revenues. Working in partnership with TEAM, IITA and Leventis has also
reduced the challenges that the farmers face interfacing with middlemen.
Oladipupo was nominated by African
Union at Addis Ababa, as one of the 67 Young African Professionals to pioneer
the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AUYVC) scheme. He was also appointed
Chairman of the newly formed Youth Wing of Nigeria’s oldest environmental NGO,
the Nigerian Field Society.
Following his track record in
community service and development, Oladipupo was recently invited by the
Special Adviser on MDG’s to the Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Hafsat
Abiola-Costello, to serve as a Project Officer in the State MDG office.
Oladipupo currently serves as
Founder and Programmes Director of The Environment Advocates/Managers (TEAM).
For more information about The Environment Advocates/Managers (TEAM),
please contact Oladipupo at ajirobadanie@yahoo.com.
Babatunde David
Age: 20
INITIATIVE: Youth for Generating Change (YGC AFRICA)
Babatunde David is a 2011 Electronic
and Electrical Engineering graduate of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State.
Though an Engineering student, he
realised in his second year that he was inclined to Motivational and Public
Speaking. His love and passion for Nigeria inspired him to create an avenue for
his peers to contribute positively to the development of Nigeria. This led to
his founding of Youth for Generating
Change (YGC) Africa in 2008. He currently serves as its founder and Team
Leader.
YGC Africa’s
core focus is to provide a platform for getting young people in Nigeria and
Africa, to actively participate in national development and collectively
developing the continent. YGC Africa believes that young people
can inculcate the moral and family-oriented values required for personal
development and nation-building. Consequently, it has adopted an approach that
utilizes activities that interest and actively engage young people. These
activities are executed in four different forms: workshops, essay competitions,
social media and printed publications. Some of the programmes include: Biannual Youth Discussion Forums
which seek to inspire and involve youth in governance and the
nation-building process; the Annual
Change Summit which gathers young people to listen and learn from the
experiences of positive role models; Rebuilding the Walls-Nigeria Initiative- an initiative that provides
solutions to the challenges affecting the positive advancement of Nigerian
youth; and Transformed Magazine-
a publication which inspires youth through feature-stories on the
experiences and exploits of youth who have surmounted challenges to achieve the
incredible.
To date, YGC Africa has successfully reached over 5000 young beneficiaries
through its various programmes and activities, impacting them with social
skills and information to engage in good governance in their sphere and proffer
solutions to the challenges peculiar to their country. The initiative has
received a lot of support from Channels Television, Farafina Publishing, HIIT,
Mediamore Limited, Microsoft, Nestle Nigeria, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and
UAC.
In 2008, Babatunde was appointed the
Youngest Microsoft Nigerian Ambassador. In the same year, he was nominated for
the prestigious Nigerian National Youth Awards (Gold category).
His leadership skills earned him
selection as Nigeria’s representative at the 2010 William J. Clinton Global
Initiative University meeting in Miami, USA.
Babafemi Oyediran
Age: 28
INITIATIVE: Rural Enterprise Development Project
(Project RED)
Babafemi Oyediran is a graduate of
Architecture from the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria. He is
currently pursuing a Masters Degree at the same institution.
He is the Founder of Rural Enterprise
Development Project (Project RED) and Co-founder of InterSynergy Consulting
(ISN Consulting).
Though Babafemi is from the South
Western part of Nigeria, he has lived most of his adult life in Niger State. In
his interaction with the rural inhabitants in the North Central region, he
observed that though they were industrious and enterprising, they were terribly
marginalized and lived in abject poverty. Given his passion for
entrepreneurship, he decided to channel his energy towards equipping and
empowering the rural inhabitants with skills necessary for self-sufficiency. He
believes that the war against abject poverty and hunger can be conquered by
developing, encouraging and supporting Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises
(SMMEs) in the grassroots.
The organisation takes
its beneficiaries, who are artisans through
a training workshop which includes role-playing and other practical and
interactive activities that facilitate efficient learning. The workshops are
designed using the Competency-based Economy Formation of Enterprise (CEFE)
model - a practice-oriented training methodology used in over 40 countries in
the world. Given the unique language dynamics of the beneficiaries, training
programmes are conducted in Pigeon English or the local dialect of the participants.
To date, 29 small-scale business
associations, four of which were set up as a result of Project RED’s training,
have been trained. in Abuja, Borno, Nassarawa, Niger and Kano.
Babafemi strongly believes that with
proper guidance, social enterprises, cooperative bodies, women and youth groups
in the rural communities can use their limited resources to contribute
immensely to the economic development of Nigeria. His experience with Small,
Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in rural communities has given him the
unique opportunity to partner with several organizations that work with
business owners.
Babafemi Oyediran was nominated by
World Bank as one of the two Nigerian youth to participate in the World Bank
Global Youth Against Corruption, GYAC Forum April 2011, in Nairobi Kenya. His
pioneering project on business ethics and anticorruption got him selected as a Global Changemaker, 2011 by the
British Council. He was also nominee of the Top 12 Awards by Youngstars
Foundation.
For more information about Rural
Enterprise Development (RED) Project, contact Babafemi at femi.oyediran@yahoo.com.
Tolulope Sangosanya
Age: 28
INITIATIVE: The LOTS Charity Foundation
Tolulope Sangosanya is a graduate of
Mass communication from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State. She is
also a graduate of the Social Sector Management Programme of the Pan African
University Lagos.
While in her final year in the Olabisi
Onabanjo University, Tolulope was deeply disturbed by the sight of a young
street girl that she observed on her way to her campus. As Tolulope prepared
for her final examinations that year, she kept wondering about the physical and
emotional abuse the little girl must have suffered. Having grown up in a broken
home, Tolulope was well aware of the importance of love in a child’s
development. She also realized that she could have ended up like the girl if
she had not been given the opportunity to have an education. This realization
and strong desire to give love to vulnerable street children, gave birth to The
LOTS Charity Foundation (LOTS) in 2006.
Since 2006, Tolulope has focused her
efforts and energy on providing this often neglected group with the support
they require to fully develop. Unlike orphans in orphanages who are provided
with the basic necessities of life- food, clothing, medical care and shelter,
street children do not have access to basic amenities and are often victims of
abuse. The LOTS Charity Foundation was set up to fill in this gap. The
initiative, which started off as a medical outreach project, has evolved into a
more comprehensive empowerment and leadership organisation. It currently
promotes education and socio-economic empowerment with the aim of transforming
disadvantaged youth into productive members of the society.
LOTS is presently focused on a literacy
programme, which it started in Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle, in 2009. The programme
has 125 registered children and 980 unregistered children who attend the
literacy classes.
In 2009, LOTS Charity Foundation
was formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission [C.A.C]. In 2010,
Tolulope partnered with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Jubilee Parish
and community members to raise funds for LOTS’ Multipurpose Resource Centre.
Through a musical concert, the church and its members raised over N2million,
which was used to establish the facility in January 2011.
Tolulope was the recipient of the
“Best Use of Advocacy” Future Awards in February 2010 for her work in Dustbin
Estate, Ajegunle.
For more information about the LOTS
foundation, please contact Tolulope at toluboni@yahoo.com; projectlots@yahoo.com.
Priscilla Ikos Usiobaifo
Age: 26
INITIATIVE: Brave Heart Initiative
Priscilla Ikos Usiobaifo holds a
National Diploma in Public Administration from Federal Polytechnic Idah, Kogi
State. She is currently a final year student of Political Science at Ambrose
Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State.
Priscilla’s concern for the high
prevalence of teenage pregnancy in her community in Akoko Edo Local Government
Area in Ondo State motivated her to start the Brave Heart Initiative (BHI)
in 2007. She found it very disheartening that young girls were expelled from
school when they got pregnant. In addition, they were ostracized and were not
reintegrated into school after childbirth. Their families and communities no
longer recognized these young mothers as adolescents in need of nurture and
guidance; rather they abandoned and expected them to fend for themselves and
their children. This unfortunate trend violates the right of teenage mothers. BHI
seeks to empower and develop youth between the ages of 10 and 25. It provides them
with the information and skills required to make informed choices on their
sexual and reproductive rights. BHI also engages in advocacy and
intervention on sexual abuse issues in Akoko Edo L.G.A. It partners with the
Judiciary, Police and Medical Practitioners to protect, treat and seek legal
redress for disadvantaged youth exposed to sexual exploitation.
BHI is
currently working in twelve (12) Secondary Schools in Akoko Edo LGA. Through
collaborative efforts, it has trained 36 teachers in Comprehensive Sexuality
Education (CSE) to educate and counsel the children on sexual education. The
training strategy was adopted as a valuable tool for preventing unwanted
pregnancies, unsafe abortions and STI’s among youth.
To date, Brave Heart Initiative (BHI)
has empowered over 4000 youth with sexual and reproductive health information
through their outreach activities in these 12 schools. Through their practical
and interactive workshops, youth learn to protect themselves from sexual abuse.
They also make informed decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive
health behaviours.
So far, over 90 rape cases in Akoko
Edo have been reported to BHI, 27 cases in 2011 alone.
However, due to family denial and fear of stigmatization by parents, BHI has
only been able to act on 18 of these cases. BHI is funded yearly by
the International Women’s Health Coalition, New York, U.S.A.
Priscilla served as a panelist at the Guttmacher Panel on
Reproductive Health at the 54th CSW, New York, USA. She was also invited as an
African Youth Delegate to a consultative meeting with policy makers at the
White House, Washington DC, March 2010.
For more information about Brave
Heart Initiative (BHI, please contact Priscilla at
scillachrist@yahoo.com
