Plan foundation signs MoU with FC Peridot Academy to support youth development

IN an effort to improve the lives of young people, Plan Health Advocacy and Development Foundation (Plan Foundation) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with FC Peridot Academy to collaborate on sports and health initiatives for youth.

Executive Director of Plan Foundation stated at the signing of the MoU that the collaboration aims to address the increasing challenges young people face daily, such as drug abuse and sexual and reproductive health issues, throughout their life journey.

According to Mr Oladapo, drug abuse has disrupted many young people’s lives, cut short numerous careers, and led many to use drugs to enhance their performance in sports.

He said that sports and sporting activities serve as unifying factors and provide opportunities to disseminate information about sexual and reproductive health, drug abuse, gender-based violence, life skills, relationships, and goal setting, as young people often get easily distracted by many things, including social media.

Oladapo declared: “In our partnership, we aim to combine sports and health. This is a long-standing collaboration that we are building, and we seek opportunities to gain support from various stakeholders, partners, and the private sector to back initiatives that improve the lives of young people by using sports as a medium to disseminate information.

“We are further focusing on revitalizing school sports. At the same time, we are building students’ capacity to set life goals, understand sexual and reproductive health, and discuss issues such as drug abuse, cultism, and other social vices that affect young people, with the aim of diverting their attention from these negative influences.

“We want to make them celebrities not for engaging in negative social behaviors, but for positive actions, so that their friends and peers can see them as the true champions they really are.”

Chairman of FC Peridot Academy, Mr Oludare Arewa, said that four years ago, the academy began mentoring boys as a management company and decided to collaborate with Plan Foundation to expose the boys to opportunities beyond football, aiming to positively change their lives.

According to him, “especially in the area of health; so we are working together to change their lives by exposing them to opportunities beyond just playing football, aiming to genuinely help and improve their futures.

“I observed that they genuinely needed information in the area of health. Sometimes, they neglect their own physical well-being. Some of them lack understanding about gender, sexual, and reproductive health.”

Deputy Superintendent of Correctional Services Olamide Akingbeja from the Nigerian Correctional Service remarked that the collaboration is important for youth development, emphasizing the need for people to understand that the prison is not a place for just anyone.

He stated, “It’s not like your home; if you are there, you will be denied all your benefits and rights. You cannot eat what you want; you must eat what they give you. A small infraction can land you in prison, and you could be there for life.”

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