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Back to School
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Originally penned on Thursday 5th June, 2008

I returned to the classroom as a student earlier today- though I made an earlier return a few days back, as teacher at the Government Secondary School, Minna where I am carrying out my primary assignment as a Youth Corps member.

Now I have experienced firsthand what ‘Gbenga Sesan - one of mentors - felt when he had to return to the classroom in April at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

For me returning to the classroom nearly two years after I left it – as student - is a commitment to one of the prongs in my multiple prongs approach to improving self – body, soul and spirit. I resolved at the commencement of the National Youth Service Year for me to maximize the opportunities the period will afford and I have decided on the following:

Serve God: Really Return to the Roots. I should have taken a cue when in Januart ‘Gbenga, One of my mentors and the same mentioned above declared in a meeting January that this year was his year of returning to the roots, I had laughed and wished the best thinking to myself that I have all he is missing and do not need to go back to any roots or retrace any steps. Today however, everything around me points at the emptiness I feel deep within and the need for me to go back to God - seek him out, learn his ways again and put his valued principles to work again in my life - has become imminent. God please help me.

I honestly feel a void deep within and have lost appreciation for a lot of things for which I have had so much value in the past.

God, please, accept m back, I am a prodigal SON come home.

Serve others: I have decided to seize the opportunity of the service year to increase my service to my fellow man; thus the conception of the ICTs Schools Project (ICTsSP), a project designed to take ICTs to children in underserved communities with the goals of (1) creating a thirst for further ICTs knowledge amongst the children; (2) attract Government and donor agencies attention to the need for ICTs based activities at community levels and; (3) above all equipping people who otherwise would not have had the privileged to improve their livelihoods by plugging into the various opportunities ICTs afford.

Service is the whole essence of the NYSC, though largely abused in some quarters with some corps employers seeing the pool of corpers as cheap labour and treating them as such and most corps members seeing the whole program as a waste of time - boy I had a similar opinion until recently.

In serving others, I have resolved to carry work further on the Students’ Survival Kit project, which is a performance enhancement program for undergraduates in Nigerian universities and those willing to study in a Nigerian university (you can read more about the project here, here, and here)

Learn: yeah increase my knowledge base and improve my skill sets. I have itemised my areas of competence and interests and have resolved to improve on my competence by seeking formal education, learning and certification opportunities. While I will seek additional information on all areas of interests to in other to identify their consonance with my life’s goal; which can be simply summarised as: making meaning of life, for me and others.

ASPIRE: Articulate and actualise my aspirations and dreams. Stop the talk and start the walk

Thus far I have made considerable progress on the LEARN point by enrolling with Broad spectrum Synergies Ltd, an Abuja based training consultancy for an eight week formal training in Project Management based on PMI’s PMBOK guide and will prepare me for the certification process by the PMI. And that was the classroom I returned to today as a student.

I will give regular updates on my activities here and more specifically at www.oluwakoredeasuni.com/reflections

June 10, 2008 | 2:27 PM Comments  0 comments

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Yes, You Can
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic



Originally posted in Ejowewe

We all know now that’s a winning line :). Over the past year and a half, the phrase has been sounded by a single man as a message of change, of hope rising… Last Tuesday we saw that hope begin to take on the semblance of reality, as Senator Barack Obama became the first African-American in history to lead a U.S. major-party ticket when he claimed the Presidential nomination for the Democratic Party. I’m happy for America. But this is entirely about Nigeria.
If you’re a Nigerian like me, how many times have you wished there was something you could do to change your country? Most of us are eager for change, but all too often that enthusiasm is quickly dampened by a feeling of helplessness over not being able to make a difference from where we are. Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) is a non-profit organisation that has refused to be bound by the limits and, as the name suggests, has consistently worked to create a new paradigm among Nigerians. Realising that the promise of Nigeria is in her people, PIN works with government, civil society, private institutions and international organisations to connect Nigerian youth with brighter futures via Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For thousands of Nigerians, PIN’s work makes the difference between mediocrity and significance, between poverty and sufficiency, between destitution and hope. PIN’s objective is to change the future of Nigeria, one person at a time.

Since its days as an online network in 2001, PIN has successfully executed several projects, details of which can be found at www.pin.org.ng/old/index.php. More recently, PIN began a revolutionary project called Ajegunle.org (see www.ajegunle.org), a relay training programme in which young people from Ajegunle (yes, Ajegunle!) are empowered with ICT and entrepreneurial skills that will enable them break the cycle of poverty in which they’re enmeshed. Ajegunle.org has received tremendous media coverage and has been presented in various fora across the world (Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt, United Kingdom and Switzerland) as a case study on how ICTs can be used to aid development in under-served communities. For more insight into the success story of Ajegunle.org, please visit http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-14359 to watch a brief descriptive documentary courtesy of Nigeria International.

You can support the awesome work PIN is doing by making a financial contribution via debit or credit card at www.pin.org.ng. With the click of a button, you can begin to change Nigeria one life at a time. You can also make donations by cheque, if that’s a more convenient means for you. Please make all cheques payable to Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, and send to any one of the addresses below:
Attn: ‘Gbenga Sesan
Paradigm Initiative Nigeria
18 Akinbola Street
Ilupeju 100252
Lagos,
Nigeria.

Friends of PIN UK
c/o Temilade Agbaje
Institute for Science and Society
Law and Social Sciences Building
University of Nottingham NG7 2RD
United Kingdom. If you prefer to pay by cash, please send an email stating your intention to laxta1@nottingham.ac.uk, and payment details will be sent to you.

As a Friend of PIN, I have witnessed first-hand lives being transformed for good through initiatives like Ajegunle.org. Working as a volunteer with the first set of Ajegunle youth in August 2007, I had the opportunity to catch a glimpse into the hopes and dreams of those young Nigerians. Speaking with them, I discovered they all had lofty ambitions buried deep within them; ambitions their circumstances had erstwhile forbidden them to pursue. The coming of Ajegunle.org re-ignited their buried dreams, causing them to dare to hope again, to believe that they can be whatever they want to be. A certain young man on the programme told me that he saw in me what he’s always wanted to be, and to this day I have the honour of being a mentor to him.

The Ajegunle.org experience made me realise that change in Nigeria against all odds is indeed possible. It made me realise that change in Nigeria against all odds depends on me. Can you be part of this change? Yes, you can. Will you be?

June 10, 2008 | 2:19 PM Comments  0 comments

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PIN and NNNGO partner on NEMP







http://www.nnngo.org/sg_images2/PIN.jpg
http://www.nnngo.org/sg_images2/logo.gif

Paradigm Initiative Nigeria &
Nigeria Network of NGOs

Present

Non-Profit Employee Motivation Program (NEMP)

A capacity building program for staff of non-profit organisations in Nigeria

Targeted audience

Employees of Non-Profits in Nigeria

Fresh graduates seeking career direction

Others seeking a move into the Non-Profit sector

Modules

Choosing a Non-Profit Career; Understanding the Non-Profit Space; Personal
Growth for Non-Profit Actors; Improving Organizational Efficiency; Managers,
Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs; Becoming Glocal Players



Facilitators


http://www.nnngo.org/sg_images2/001Sesan_r1_c1.jpg

'Gbenga Sesan


http://www.nnngo.org/sg_images2/Official-compressed_r1_c1_r1_c1.jpg

'Niyi Adesanya




'Gbenga Sesan is a social entrepreneur and Nigeria's first IT Youth
Ambassador. His research experience includes assignments completed for
Harvard University, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Res
Publica, International Telecommunications Union and Computer Aid
International. 'Gbenga has spoken to over 400 audiences in 23 countries, he
is a member of the Nigerian Presidential Task Force on ICT Restructuring,
and was the Vice Chair of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's
African Technical Advisory Committee. He serves on the Board of a number of
non-profit and private sector institutions, and is the Executive Director of
Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. A multiple award winner who has been profiled
as one of the 35 Icons of ICT in Nigeria, 'Gbenga is a 2007 Archbishop Tutu
Leadership Fellow - and he maintains his personal website at
www.gbengasesan.com.



A human capital advisor, public speaker, trainer and expert on the subject
of leadership Niyi is a personified leader and inspiration to many. He is
Managing Consultant, FifthGear Consulting, a firm poised with the vision to
help organizations be their best at building and sustaining a culture of
leadership that can maximize productivity, engender growth and promote
harmony. He is one of the brains behind the Alliance of Change Empowerment
Speakers (ACES) - a high profile network of public speakers, professionals
and human resource development experts. He also is the President, 'Niyi
Adesanya Mass Empowerment Initiative; NAME-IT', a body which is geared
towards promoting and empowering entrepreneurship and business success; and
a member of faculty at the prestigious Daystar Leadership Academy (DLA). He
has personally coached many high profiled personalities which include a
State Governor, Corporate Executives, Entrepreneurs, Pastors and Public
office holders.



Date

Friday 25th April 2008

Venue

Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos

Registration

Registration attracts a fee of N 37,000 (thirty seven thousand naira only)
per participant and a 5% group discount for groups of 5 or more.

Download registration forms here <http://www.pin.org.ng/nemp/register.doc>

Scholarship

NNNGO is offering a limited number of N20,000 scholarships to help intending
participants toward paying full training tuition of N37,000. Please contact
Oluseyi Oyebisi (seyi@nnngo.org) for more information, now.

To Register

Send your completed registration form as an attachment to