Group trains corps members on capacity building

To guide young people and help nurture them into productive adults, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), yesterday, trained members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Taraba State on Life Planning for Youths and adolescents (LPAY).

At the workshop, the corps members were equipped with knowledge that would help them counsel young people on sexual abstinence, unplanned pregnancies, and protection from Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

The one-day exercise, which was designed to strengthen the capacity of corps members to reach out to young people with targeted information on life planning, would be a continuous process in the state. 

Speaking at the training in Jalingo, the TCl Technical Support Lead Service Delivery personnel, Dr. Nshe Muknaan David, said life planning empowers young people with positive life-changing information that can help them make informed decisions about critical issues in life.
 
David, who stated that there were complexities around the lives of adolescents and youths, stressed the need for them to be given accurate and adequate information on life planning in order to discourage them from treading on paths that would jeopardise their future.

Noting that in Nigeria, teenage or adolescent pregnancy among girls aged 15-19 years constitutes a considerable health risk, resulting in high maternal deaths and morbidity, David said the corps members’ interventions would go a long way in helping young people make a responsible and healthy choice about their reproductive health.

Also, another resource person with the TCI, Victoria Mohammed, stated that if properly guided, mistakes often made by young people, especially in the area of reproductive health, would be avoided.