Youths benefit from group’s vocational empowerment

As part of its annual empowerment programme, the Human of Substance Empowerment Initiative last week gave six months scholarship and mentorship to 100 secondary school graduates from all local governments across Ibadan. TITILAYO AFOLABI and YOMADE BALOGUN reports that the 100 chosen among the thousands of youths couldn’t hide their enthusiasm and appreciation of the lifetime opportunity.

In line with its vision of giving independence to women and youths in order to create a better society and based on the belief of its founder that in order to reduce the number of youths that are vulnerable to peer pressure and crime, everyone must have a way of making ends meet, the Human of Substance Empowerment Initiative (HOSEI), a nongovernmental organization founded by a lawyer, Abiade Olawanle Abiola, saved 100 youths from idleness by giving them free six months scholarship for vocational training and mentorship during the association’s annual empowerment programme.
The 100 beneficiaries that were selected from thousands of youths from local governments across Ibadan on an early bird basis were all secondary school graduates from public schools that are awaiting admission into institutions of higher learning.
The first 100 to arrive at Jogor centre, venue of the empowerment tagged ‘Working towards your dreams’ were given their scholarship letters as the fourth set of beneficiaries while the 100 that were the third set also graduated from their various training centres on the same day.
Indeed, the adage which says that an idle hand is the devil’s workshop was put to shame as 100 teenagers that seven months ago had no known skills, now have the required skill to stand on their own and become employers of labour. It was a day of joy to parents of the outgoing set and the new ones who recognized the opportunity as one that could lessen the financial burden of school fees as their children now had skills to augment what they give them.
For the outgoing beneficiaries, it was a set that had undergone rigorous physiological, emotional and indepth vocational training to give independent teenagers whose already have the rough edges of their lives polished.
And in the next six months, the 100 secondary school graduates, rather than stay idle while waiting to gain admission into institutions of higher learning; will have a turnaround of fortune through the benevolence HOSEI. They will be able to undergo trainings in bead and jewelry making, catering, fashion designing, photography and multimedia works, video recording, graphics and decoration, make up, hair dressing, catering among other trades.
Abiade’s vision is to give as many youths as possible a chance not only to dream but to also pursue their dream and rewrite their own stories in a way that will set them on the path of independence. And for these 100 teenagers, contact with HOSEI is a life changing experience.
For the graduating set, when the clarion call sounded that they should attend a mentorship programme, it had no meaning and many went just to fulfill righteousness but today, the journey taken in jest had taken them to the next level in life.
For the new set, it was indeed a matter of many were called but few are chosen as the most determined of the teeming thousands that attended the event got into the programme after various degrees of sacrifices like sleeping at the event centre while some were escorted to the venue before daybreak.
HOSEI is expecting that six months from now, the 100 youths that had no plans or hope for their future would have evolved into independent youths that can stand for themselves and their rights and also fend for themselves and be useful to the community.
Barrister Abiola had been taking in 100 youths annually to mentor them to take charge of their lives by training them, creating opportunities for them, taking them on a road to self discovery and generally addressing their situations
HOSEI further gives youths improved access to resources and transformed their consciousness, beliefs, values, and attitudes with the I can and I will attitude which allowed those that could not stand up for themselves develop confidence to stand tall.
For these young people, it is a journey on a new path to a new life.