The Interview Editors
Federal Government is committed to addressing the menace of out-of-school-children and providing succor for vulnerable youth across the country, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs. Maryam Uwais.
In this regard, government is mounting training programme dubbed “At-Risk-Children Programme (ARC-P)” for facilitators in targeted states.
The pilot scheme has taken off in Gombe.
ARC-P is under the auspices of the Office of the Vice President in collaboration with state governments, the private sector and development partners, as well as other critical stakeholders.
Speaking on Saturday during the closing ceremony of a 3-week capacity building training programme for 500 ARC-P youth facilitators drawn from the 11 LGAs in the Gombe state capital, Mrs. Uwais, the programme coordinator, said the programme was critical for a secured and sustainable future for the underserved children and vulnerable youth in Nigeria.
“This is a hugely ambitious task but we believe that it is one feasible way we can address the challenge of huge numbers of out-of-school-children across the country,” Mrs. Uwais told the facilitators, stressing that the government was counting on them to make the programme a success.
Trainees were taught skills in critical areas such as child pedagogy, rights & protections, basic literacy and numeracy, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, digital skills, sports & life skills, agriculture, mental health, psycho-social support, basic monitoring and evaluation among others.
Following their graduation, they are to be deployed as tutors and monitors of children taken off the streets in various communities.
The youth facilitators would be assigned the lists of disadvantaged youth and children within their LGAs as their direct responsibility, for identification and to enable them secure parental/guardian consent, before the training and nurturing would commence in the various community hubs set up by the state government.
Besides, they are expected to report back to the federal and state teams every month on their findings.
A monthly stipend would be availed them, in addition to support for the entrepreneurship opportunities arising from their own peculiar skills.
Mrs. Uwais added: “We need to create an army of capacity within the communities to see how we can support these children who, through no fault of theirs, are deprived of so many rights and protections.”
She thanked her host, Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, for being the first to sign up for the ARC-P initiative, saying that the events in Gombe would be replicated in other states that have so far embraced ARC-P, depending on the peculiarities and circumstances of each jurisdiction.
Reacting, the Gombe governor thanked the Federal Government team led by Mrs. Uwais.
Accompanied by the state First Lady, Hajiya Asma’u Inuwa Yahaya, and other top state functionaries, the governor attributed the success of ARC-P activities in the State, including the conduct of the 500 Youth Facilitators’ Induction training programme, to hard work, commitment and dedication.
“This batch of ARC-P facilitators that have completed their training were selected from the databank of unemployed graduates that our administration established in order to link these graduates with appropriate job opportunities. As pioneers of this programme, I urge you all to work hard, uphold your knowledge for good practice and training, remain focused and above all, be good ambassadors of our administration’s effort towards improving human capital development in the State,” Governor Yahaya added.
