Slater Christopher is the Founder of Solicitude Beyond Borders Foundation. In this interview, Christopher speaks on what the foundation does, its partnership with Obidient Movement and how the strategies it has put in place to empower Nigerian underprivileged kids and unemployed youths. Excerpts:
Can you tell us what the foundation does?
We are into basic education and skills acquisition for out-of-school kids and unemployed youths. One thing we have noticed in Nigeria is the decline in education and skills, thereby making these kids and unemployed youths docile. We all know that education is the basic foundation to every society, so we are doing this to change their social situation.
Can you tell us about your partnership with Obidient Movement?
One of the things that made us partner with the Obidient Movement is the intention to develop, train and engage our youths at the grassroots. We understand that real governance and building of a good society depends on education, which elevates the moral and education standards of the people. Basically, this is why I partnered with the Obidient Movement. They give me the direction that I have to go in terms of establishing and redeveloping the grassroots in our various communities.
What are the strategies you have in place to make this a success?
They say charity begins at home. Therefore, we want to go back home, strategise and build a structure.
In what ways do you intend to carry out the empowerment projects?
In partnership with the Obidient Movement, we have two projects we are working on at the moment. We have goat rearing and cross breeding projects. We select qualified and willing beneficiaries from our grassroot in Warri South, Delta State. We select them and bring them to Abuja. There is a ranch for that. Also, after training, there is a need to engage these individuals. Because they are unemployed youths, they can not be trained and left alone without the necessary resources to succeed. After training, we will establish them so that they can be self-sufficient and become useful to society.
The second programme is the drone technology programme. Everyone is aware of the security situation in the country and the cracks in our security architecture. We must secure our national assets. So, what we are trying to do is train these unemployed youths on drone technology and mapping. With this skill, they can secure a particular terrain using drones as surveillance and reporting back to the right authority with which we will be synergising.
How do you intend to bring about the synergy?
We are looking to partner with the Federal Government in terms of security. We look forward to getting the best out of this from our youths.
What plans have been made to enable the kids and youths succeed at this training?
While we are bringing them from one state to another, there is already a facility where they will be stationed. Their accommodation, feeding have been taken care of.
How did the foundation select those who will be selected?
Since this our first trial, we did a programme back in Warri, Delta State, where we engaged a lot of youths. By that medium we announced that we needed people willing to engage in such projects.
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