By Zamawela Shamase
Center For Earth Works (CFEW), a research-driven youth-led non-governmental organisation that is passionate about securing the Earth, held a two-day training for young volunteers on the 9th and 10th of June, 2022, at the Center for Earth Work office in Jos, Plateau State Nigeria.
The training was created to involve youth in addressing the adverse effects of climate change, as they will be impacted in the future. It also aimed to train youth to drive change in their communities and share basic knowledge of volunteerism. Furthermore, in light of the increasing climate anxiety youth are facing, in conjunction with social isolation and burnout, CFEW identified that there was a need to delve into wellness topics in the training.
“The goal is for advocates to learn tools to care for themselves and colleagues, reduce stress, improve relationships and leadership performance while promoting a sense of well-being and renewed strength,” said Benson Dotun Fasanya, team lead at CFEW.
The volunteer training was promoted on social media and targeted youths. The majority of the trainees consisted of undergraduate students from the local university. In total, nine youths were trained to become volunteers. In addition to this, there were three facilitators from supporting NGOs in Nigeria in attendance.
The agenda for the training was centred around the following topics: the concept of volunteerism, community and resource mobilization, storytelling, monitoring and evaluation, SDGs for climate, reporting and documentation of project activities, volunteer self-care, support and avoiding burnout.
These sessions were discussed comprehensively, and at the end of the training, the volunteers had a clear understanding of what volunteerism entails its advantages and disadvantages. As well as the importance of monitoring and evaluation in helping an organisation achieve the goals and objectives of a programme and measuring the success of programmes carried out. The session on storytelling and its use in communicating relevant information about particular issues was also greatly appreciated by the participants.
After the training, the trainees were incorporated into the CFEW volunteer network, where they will implement what they learned from the training through practical work experiences in the organisation and engagements with the community, both online and physically.
The volunteers have been assigned to various departments in the organisation, such as communications, programmes and research. They have also been engaged in various advocacy visits creation of programs and content for our various social media handles.
The training was funded by the Wellness and Contemplative Practice Support from Global Alliance for incinerator alternatives (GAIA). For more updates on CFEW’s work, follow them on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
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