Sustainable Collective Advocacy for Africa Development Initiative (SCAAD Initiative) has on Saturday launched training for out-of-school and less privileged teenagers and youth otherwise known as Sustainable Approach to Teens Education (SATE) project in Adamawa State.
The SATE project was conceived to empower teens/Youths to access opportunities to improve their quality of life and environment.
Angela Godwin Sale, project manager SCAAD Initiative in Adamawa State, said, the new project which is sponsored by Bohen-Matz a private company in Abuja will enable the youth especially those that are not in school to make sustainable income through the recycling value chain so as to go back to school.
Sale noted that no fewer than 25 of them are involved in the first phase of the training adding that more of such youths will be incorporated across the 21 local governments of the state.
“The world is being ravaged by the impact of climate change and it is left for young people to campaign for and live sustainable lives for better world tomorrow. We can do this through educating the right way.
“Children are the leaders of tomorrow, we must teach them to lead today for tomorrow. We are starting the project with 25 children and will expand it to other local government areas to reach more children,” she said.
She noted that through the project, the youth will gain sustainable income as well as impact positively on the environment by removing from it harmful and hazardous substances adding that the program was deliberately organized to coincide with World Environment Day which falls on Sunday.
The program manager noted that the 25 enrolees will be taken to a local recycling outfit, Mailafiya ventures in Yola so that they can appreciate the fact that while creating a better environment, they can also make sustainable income and also to establish linkage between the children and the company.
During the sessions, the teenagers recieved impactful messages on items that can be recycled, hazards of leaving them in the environment and the benefits involved in recycling them.
She said that the benefitting teenagers were involved in the project with the full consent of their parents or guardians adding that all the necessary measures for the safety of the teens have been put in place.
SCAAD Initiative is a non profit, non governmental organization established under the Nigerian law to address varied challenges of youth marginalization and environmental injustice in Africa.
It also recognizes that the issues of youth and environment are multifaceted and require an intersectional approach involving strategic engagements, enabling laws, policies and community ownership.
