Impact is Affordable

Before now, i was just doing my thing as a Teens Teacher in my local Church, befriending and mentoring Teenagers to avoid the mistakes i had made, helping them discover and decide early enough the direction they would want their lives to take.

But after seeing the impact of the 'little sessions', i decided that more Secondary School aged Students should be reached, because a lot needs to be done, for instance, a bulk of secondary school leavers do not have detailed information about what the course they want to study in the University entails, neither do they know why they want to study the course to start with, even most Final year students in the Universities do not have a clear picture of what practicing in their field of study really involves, consequently, we have lots of professional misfits in the society.

So, The Daniels Foundation for Youth development in Africa - (TDFAfrica) was Born. TDFAfrica is a Non Governmental Organization that focuses on guiding Secondary aged Students to make informed Career decisions and at the same time birth a problem solving mentality in them. As a matter of fact about two of my past Teenagers are currently serving as Volunteers on the TDFAfrica Team.

TDFAfrica's last outreach in a School turned out to be more than rewarding, it started with a weekly visit to the School since the beginning of the term. On the fifth visit, the students were asked to identify problems in the School, after which they were divided into three groups and each group was to proffer solutions to a particular problem.

On arrival at the School on the sixth week, i asked the group leaders for updates, it turned out that the group that identified disrespect and disunity among Students had approached the Principal of the School to convene the entire school in an assembly. During which, the Group addressed the entire School asking everyone to suggest how they can bring back discipline, Unity and respect to the School, One after the other the classes voiced out their grievances,vices and villains were named-the Juniors complained about the Seniors and prefects being treated as sacred cows, the Seniors on the other hand,complained about their classmates-and from what i was told by the students and their Teachers, it was a thorough session.

To an extent, i wished i was there while all that happened, but the best part of the feed back is that they had started a process of change they never knew they could initiate in their School by themselves. As at the time of the feedback, the group testified that they were beginning to see changes as more than half of the Seniors obeyed and plaited the school hairstyle for the week, majority of the senior students also wore white socks and proper School sandals. That's not all, the second group responsible for creating extra curricular activities in the school had met and organized a friendly match with another school.

As i listened to the group leaders' updates, the best definition for my feelings is, "FULFILLMENT' and i learnt a BIG lesson that day, that is; 'impact is affordable', the resources may not be visible, but they are there, always have been but will only be revealed to you when you launch out into the deep.

Olabisi Abimbola

#YouthLogOn

How to Get Involved

 More Volunteers are needed, Financial Supports is also needed