14 years after, stakeholders chart course for sustainability of Goal Project at close out ceremony

After 14 years, the Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), a non-governmental organisation is closing out on its Goal Project, which was implemented with sponsorship from the Standard Chartered Bank in 2010, to empower youths through strategic partnership and programmes in health, livelihoods, sports, education and leadership, in order to move the project to the next level and hand over to the stakeholders to carry on using existing structures.

The foundation last week held a close-out session in Ibadan where stakeholders deliberated on how to sustain the project after close out with greater impact within communities and were charged to ensure the legacy is sustained.

In its 14 years of existence in Nigeria, running simultaneously in three cities; Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja, the Goal Project has touched the lives of 168,946 girls across public schools, giving them vocational skills and training in sports like football and taekwondo while making them advocates against gender-based abuse and violence as well as financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.

Speaking during the close-out session, the Executive Secretary of Youth Empowerment Foundation, Iwalola Akin –Jimoh, said the Goal Project is sponsored by the Standard Chartered Bank and had been running since 2010, adding that “today we are having a stakeholder’s engagement with line ministries, school principals and other contact persons in the schools where we work. One of the few things that Goal does for girls is to build their confidence, self-esteem, and also empower them to be leaders who will know a lot about financial literacy and start their own business. One of the few things we have seen over the last 14 years of very hard work is that girls who have passed through the projects are now coaches giving back in their various communities and also now business owners.

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“The benefit of going through goal is multidimensional in impact; proven academic excellence, consciousness about gender-based violence and being an advocate who not only prevents it but also gives support to victims. The benefits are many and we are so proud of the achievements from the goal project, courtesy of Standard Chartered Bank and Youth Empowerment Foundation and we are looking at ways we can sustain this beyond this year. Anything that has a beginning must have an end, so it’s not as if we are wrapping up, but what we are looking at is a more inclusive engagement of our stakeholders; every year, we have stakeholders meeting and we assess our achievements, challenges and where we need to improve and every year, we find solutions to the challenges experienced. So what we are doing now is handing over the project to the stakeholders and let them run it. It is about sustainability and impact. We are still involved but we are handing it over to stakeholders to run by themselves,” she added.

On her part, Tolulope Osoba, the Programme Manager at YEF, stated that when the project started, it had duration,” adding that “that duration is coming to an end, that is, the project is closing out in terms of implementation. That is why we asked our stakeholders to come around so that we can sit together and see how we can carry the project on by building a structure that will ensure sustainability where all our partners can successfully work within the structure built over the last 14 years and harness the resources that we already have on ground and move the project forward by working together as a team and in synergy.”

The Programme officer,  Bukola Akingbohungbe stated that the project initially started with four schools; St Theresa, Peoples Girls Grammar School, Community High School, Odo Ona and Our Lady of Apostle, majorly girls only school but when YEF registered with the Ministry of Education, it was told to expand, adding that “so we added other girls only school till it got to 14 schools.

The close-out ceremony of the Goal Project was attended by stakeholders from various government ministries, departments and agencies, public secondary school principals and teachers.