AWACIO

An Up To Date Report On The Kwali Youth Skill Empowerment Program Sponsored By TOTAL UPSTREAM In Partnership With AWACIO
THE OBJECTIVE: Our main objective was to commune youths in Kwali community to select twenty four (24) youths that will participate in the Empowerment program. By engaging in a large mass selection process we are able to create awareness of the community enhancement program instigated by TOTAL UPSTREAM Nigeria through the help of NGOs.
REGISTRATION: About 109 youths were registered for the Empowerment training program. The registration process took about 6 weeks and occurred at the Pilot community secondary school, Kwali. The duration of this exercise allowed youths from the ten political wards of the Kwali Area Council to register. The youths were gathered by text messages and also words of mouth through their youth leader, Mr. Daniel Nuhu. The initial turn-out of the youths was not very impressive but as time went on the youths started showing more interests. Their reasons were that they did not trust us because of the misleading experiences they had with a few other NGOs that visited their community.

Fig 1: Youths Registration exercise

VISITS TO THE ETSU OF KWALI AND THE CHAIRMAN OF KWALI AREA COUNCIL

During the registration Process, AWACIO visited the traditional ruler (ETSU) of Kwali, to inform him of AWACIO/TOTAL UPSTREAM’s mission and to gain his consent. On many occasions when AWACIO visited the ETSU, AWACIO was well received. The traditional ruler pledged his full support for the program and thanked AWACIO/TOTAL UPSTREAM for considering the Kwali community. The community leaders believe that empowering their youths will yield good citizens of the community and keep the young men from being public menaces.

Fig 2: AWACIO’s visit to the ETSU’s Palace

AWACIO, after several attempts, was able to meet the Chairman of Kwali Area Council, Hon. Daniel Ibrahim to solicit the use of the Kwali Town Hall. AWACIO was asked to submit the request in writing.
                                                                     
Fig 3: AWACIO’s visit to Kwali Area Council office and AWACIO’s staff discussing with the Chairman’s Personal Assistant (P.A)

Following the submission of a written request, AWACIO was granted the use of Kwali Town hall for the empowerment activities. The program venue was then relocated from the community school to the Kwali Town Hall.

MEETING WITH THE TRAINERS

AWACIO engaged several trainers to register to train the youths. These trainers represented the selected skills. Following several meetings and review of their certificates, six of them were selected. They were asked to sign an agreement form with AWACIO and submit a list of materials/tools needed to train the participants. They were urged to be committed and consistent in training the youths.

 

ORIENTATION EXERCISE:

The Orientation exercise started on the 28th of October, 2014, initially at the Pilot community school and then moved to Kwali Town hall.  The youths were briefed on the orientation process, and the expectations for the week long training were emphasized. The youths were asked to be punctual and to show commitment.
As part of the orientation exercise, the trainers were required to advertise their trade by making a presentation on their skills. The discussion included sharing the relevance of the skills, and how to generate good income from them including sharing experiences of average weekly income from each skill.  This was necessary to help the participants to decide on what skill to sign up for before the final selection process.                   
  
Fig 4: Youths during the orientation exercise

SELECTION PROCESS FOR THE 24 YOUTHS

DAY2
Although AWACIO registered about 109 participants, only 84 youths (about 77.1% of total number registered) turned out for the selection process on Day2. The selection process was done at the Kwali Town hall. This process involved performing a mini-demonstration of what is expected from the different skills by four of the skill trainers.

Fig 5: Mini-demonstration by the pastry/hall decoration trainer in Kwali Town hall

DAY 3
The number of participants began to diminish, there were about 66 participants (about 61% of total youth registered) represented on day 3. The mini-demonstration by trainers continued. Two of the remaining trainers discussed their skills. The youths were trained in financial management and also on being good community citizens. The speaker gave the youth vital information about the need to know how to manage their finances after the training process is over and eventually become established in their various businesses. He gave them tips on how to balance their income and their expenditures. He made an illustration with the vulcanizer to reflect that if a daily sale of N300 was made and an expenditure of N100 was made, then the vulcanizer made a gain of N200. This was just to stress on the point that your daily expenditure should never be above your daily sale of the service you provide.
Following the four presentations of the day, the participants were given their first quiz. This was the first step towards the selection process.
DAY 4
The number of participants decreased to about 53 (about 49% of the total number of youths registered) on day 4. Those present were given a second quiz. After the second quiz, participants were asked to indicate their skill preference and requested to sit with the trainer.  From this separation, the tile laying had 15 participants, pastry/hall decoration had 17 participants, P.O.P had 7 participants, painting had 3 participants, vulcanizing had 4 participants and phone repairs had 4. The desired candidates were selected from these groups based on their scores on the quizzes, attendance, and level of education. The selection process was facilitated by the trainers, AWACIO field representatives, and AWACIO staff. Below are the results of the selection process shown in the Table below.
Those in (*) are designated as standbys. They will replace any participant who fails to meet our expectations and requirements during training. The standbys are encouraged to participate in the skill training process as well. Please note that because tile laying and pastry/hall decoration were more, we increased the number from 4 to 6 and decreased the numbers in the other skills from 4 to 3 in order to make this possible. Listed below are the names of the 24 participants and their skills.
PLASTER OF PARIS (P.O.P)

S/N	Names	Qualification	Age	Gender
1	Luka Saleh	S.S.C.E	24	Male
2	Adamu Ishaya	S.S.C.E	23	Male
3	Habila Innocent	S.S.C.E	23	Male
*4	Yakubu Peter	S.S.C.E	21	Male

VULCANIZING

S/N	NAME	Qualification	Age	Gender
1	Idriss Suleiman	Primary 3	20	Male
2	Benjamin Musa	J.S.S 3	19	Male
3	Suleiman Haruna	S.S.1	16	Male
*4	Sunday Ibrahim	S.S. 3	22	Male

PAINTING

S/N	NAME	Qualification	Age	Gender
1	Felix Iliya Midah	S.S.C.E	19	Male
2	Jummai John	S.S.C.E	20	Female
3	Samuel Dogara	S.S.C.E	23	Male

PHONE REPAIRS

S/N	NAME	Qualification		Age	Gender
1	Musa Abdulmumin	N.C.E		26	Male
2	Tijani Yusuf	S.S 1	26		Male
3	Musa James	S.S.C.E	20		Male
*4	Mohammed Adamu Dangana	N.C.E	28		Male

TILE LAYING

S/N	NAME	Qualification	Age	Gender
1	Isah Sule Ortega	N.D	26	Male
2	Sani Hayatu Deen	S.S.C.E	22	Male
3	Grace Joshua	S.S.C.E	18	Female
4	Peter Danjuma	N.D	23	Male
5	Micah Dogo Samuel	S.S.C.E	24	Male
6	Agada Stephen	N.C.E	28	Male
*7	Adamu Mohammed	S.S.C.E	22	Male

PASTRY AND HALL DECORATION

S/N	NAME	Qualification	Age	Gender
1	Barnabas Tani Kande	S.S.C.E	18	Female
2	Baza Kyauta	N.C.E	23	Female
3	Adams Bala Ibrahim	S.S.C.E	22	Male
4	Bulus Christiana	N.C.E	25	Female
5	Hanatu Baruwana	N.C.E	26	Female
6	Felicia Simon Dogo	N.C.E	25	Female
*7	Godiya Adamu Iyako	S.S.C.E	21	Female

AWACIO field representatives assigned to be monitor and evaluate the trainers and the trainees during the training period are listed below as follows:
P.O.P – Laraba Cyprian
Vulcanizing and Phone Repairs- Atem Obi
Tile Laying – Emenike Charity
Pastry/Hall decoration – Mercy Sunday
Painting – Ginika Nwafor
These field representatives will make regular visits to the training sites during training and provide reports and feedback concerning each group.
The training officially started on Wednesday Nov 5, 2014. Trainers were given the day before to purchase materials for training, and to prepare their sites for training.
 The graduation ceremony for this event is tentatively set for Friday, November 28, 2014, pending approval from TOTAL UPSREAM.

Fig. 6: Overview of youths during pre-selection session

 

Fig. 7: Financial Management training session

 
Fig. 8: Overview of youths taking quiz

 
Fig. 9: Final selection (youths were grouped according to their choice of skills)

 
Fig. 10: Overview of the 24 selected youths with their standbys

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