Last Saturday 31st August, 2013, the Make-A-Future initiative (Powered by EsoAra, www.esoarang.com) for teenagers led by Ms. Tolulope Aladesuyi and her team in partnership with Harvest Place, Lagos hosted about 80 teenagers at a training and mentorship programme. The event was tagged “Unmasking Your Latent Potential”. The initiative which started in January, 2013 in Akure adopts experience sharing, peer mentoring and skill acquisition as the method to raise future leaders who will affect the world positively. The highlight of the event included games, lectures and Health talk by Mr Martin-Mary of Kids-n-Teens Resource Center. Other features of the program were Dance presentation, Peer Mentoring and a Book reading session.
At every Make-A-Future event, Tolulope shares timeless truths with the teenagers and shares a book with them. For this edition, the book, Pink Ripples written by Oluwakemi Odusanya was the book read and given to all participants. Other gift items like stationeries were also given to them. A clergy man, Pastor Timon Oviawe charged the teenagers in line with the theme of the event by encouraging them to harness their potentials and become the champions of their dream. To make the empowerment more practical, the organizing team added a skill acquisition training which was really stimulating for the teenagers since it had to do with the latest fashion trend; ‘Ankara’ accessories. The participants learned how to make various range of Ankara accessories such as neckpiece, Alice band, bowtie, ear rings, bracelets, slippers and custom made wrist watches. There was obvious excitement on the faces of the participants over new knowledge and skill acquired; the teenagers went home with the items made.
The event was indeed an amazing blend of fun and learning. In their feedback, some of the participants told the Make A Future team not to hesitate to invite them for subsequent sessions of encouragement and empowerment of this kind. The Make-A-Future team is open to partnerships and is committed to doing more, by replicating platforms that will continue to imbibe the vision of intentional and purposeful living to our future leaders in other states of Nigeria.