The Leadership Development Programme (LDP) addressed to students of tertiary institutions has the philosophy of leadership through self-leadership and social responsibility. As part of the requirements for graduation, the participants are to carry out community development projects. That earmarked for this year is AMAD! – Afara Makes A Difference, to cater for the needs of Iroto community in Ogun State.
The AMAD breezes started quite early on in the morning of 2nd November .The first arrivals (Jessica and Samiyat) were in the center as early as 8:00 am. While some were helping out in the kitchen to prepare lunch and put the food things in order, the others helped to bring out the luggage and food stuffs. By 3 pm we set out with Chinoye Ibekwe cracking up our ribs and making the trip seem shorter. AMAD 2015 has just begun and this first group were made up of five LDP participants, three coordinators and four volunteers. This number would increase to twenty-eight as more people joined as they week went by. The Participants will spend the next seven days serving and putting into practice all they have learnt during the one year LDP programme.
About three hours later we arrived at home for the next few days, the famous ‘Green Palace’. We walked through our narrow staircase into the dark palace and soon began our plans for clearing. It was impressive to see how we quickly formed work chains emphasizing several times the need for division of labor. It was many hours of intense work.
After breakfast the next day, we were grouped according to the school distributions; Itamakpako High school, Odonoko and Obafemi Awolowo Comprehension High School (OACHS), Iloti. At Odonoko, Grace Soronnadi taught mathematics to the SS1 students, she taught with a lot of passion while stressing the need for daily practice. She paid a lot of attention to those who seemed not to follow such that even at break time, some students insisted that they stay behind and solve more questions.
Racheal and Aishat Oladele taught mathematics and English respectively to the SS2 while Nonye Ibekwe taught mathematics in SS3 class. At Iloti, Kemi Rosonwo taught English, Thessy Duru taught biology, Samiyat Bakare taught Social Studies, and Kosi Onubeze taught Government while Benita Maduadichie taught mathematics and Chemistry. Later in the evening, we prepared our lesson notes and put our thought together to give a career talk.
Somma Duru joined the group to teach at Odonoko, she taught Essay writing to the SS2 students. The
career talk came towards the end of the school day; we spoke to them of our different fields of study, the subject requirements, job opportunities etc. At Itamakpako, they had classes as usual and were told to arrive the next day at 7:45am to give a career talk. Samiyat Bakare spoke to the student at the assembly ground on the need to work hard, dream big and trust in God.
By this time, more people had arrived from Lagos. The next day, Odonoko had more recruits, Chinelo Aghaizu and Jennifer Eze taught the JS1, Jessica Ezimoha and Tobi Odubela taught JS2 while Benedicta Nwankwo and Victoria Obadara taught the JS3, Maryanne Ikwuje helped out with the SS3. Oladoyin Olayiwola taught Mathematics to the SS1 student while Ifeoma Nnewuihe and Funmi Onakoya taught at Itamakpako.
Later that evening at Iroto conference centre, we had a fully packed evening. First was a session on character formation anchored by Veronica Esode, then a talk on care of the home by Kosi Onubeze. She spoke about the need to make little efforts to spice up our homes and take care of little details of love and affection. She also encouraged the participants to be always open to learn better ways of caring for the home. Vera Udoh rounded up with a seminar on Influencing Public Opinion.
…to be continued
