HELPING NGOS BUILD CAPACITY AND REACH YOUNG PEOPLE IN ENUGU, NIGERIA.
“Youth are no longer the leaders of tomorrow but the leaders of today.”
OVERVIEW
How can NGOs and nonprofits do a better job connecting, recruiting, and organizing with young people?
In Egunu State, Nigeria, NGOs work on so many issues that young people face every day, including human rights, democracy, and good governance. To make a difference, these organizations need to learn how to build capacity and make meaningful connections with the young people they seek to get involved in their communities.
The Society for the Improvement of Rural People (SIRP) aims to bring these organizations together to share best practices that enable them to reach more young people and strive for a better, more democratic future in Enugu State.
wHAT IS sirp?
SIRP is an organized, non-government, non-political national organization in Nigeria committed to working with rural people towards poverty alleviation and their overall empowerment in a sustainable manner through sustained advocacy, training research, project implementation, and provision or credit.
Their mission is to promote quality service delivery that would improve the living conditions of the people while ensuring true partnership, accountability, and good governance
how sirp HELPED OVER 20 NGOS REACH MORE YOUNG PEOPLE
In 2020, SIRP organized a capacity-building training for the Executive Directors of 20 NGOs in Enugu State as an opportunity to come together and learn to better engage young people in their organizations’ activities. The training emphasized the need to adopt various youth-friendly approaches in their programs, including social media, sports, games, music, drama, and art.
SIRP has found that when NGOs connect with young people on their level using passion, energy, and vibrance, they can ignite passion and participation on issues like democracy, human rights, and good governance. When NGOs use tools like social media, sports, or art, they aren’t met by as much resistance or even boredom from the young people they are trying to reach. SIRP urges organizations to use the same energy and vocabulary young people find in their day-to-day activities to help get them involved on important issues.
This training opened my eyes to the less fancy approaches to promoting youth inclusion in democracy. This includes the use of various youth-friendly approaches like soccer, music, etc.
— Faith Obioma
CONCLUSION
According to Somtochukwu, SIRP has reached the following conclusions from their work with youth activism in Nigeria.
Young people are energetic and vibrant, hence the need to adopt various youth-friendly approaches in programming activities for them.
Democracy, good governance, and human rights cannot be achieved without the involvement of young people.
Organizations need to ensure and place emphasis on youth inclusion in projects, from the project design phase through the post-evaluation stage.
Organizations need to continue to invest in capacity-building for youth activism.
Organizations need to create safe spaces for young people to have discussions on various issues affecting them.
STAY INFORMED
Want to learn more about SIRP’s efforts in Egunu? You can visit their website or connect with them on Twitter.