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Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), Lagos, has trained youths across Nigeria to solve challenges in their local and global communities.
Speaking at a four-day active citizens workshop, Vice Chairman, YMCA, Adedolapo Ayoola, said the training was crucial as it sought to impact the youths with the knowledge to provide solutions to the needs of their communities.

Ayoola said youths needed to know that the government could not solve all the challenges, which was why they are equipped with the right knowledge to contribute towards solving the issues ravaging their communities.

General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, YMCA, Lagos, Adeniyi Akindayomi, said there was the need to raise the future of Nigeria, adding that the training was aimed at raising young people, who would begin to identify problems in their communities; find solutions and implement them.

He said rather than the blame game of the government and citizens, impacting young people with the right skills and knowledge was critical to implementing positive changes across the country.

Akindayomi noted there was no good governance without the people, adding that the participants of the programme had been equipped to move into the communities and implement solutions in the form of advocacy and projects to help solve the societal challenges.

“I expect the participants to move immediately into the communities and start causing changes by advocacy and project implementation to solve the problems the politicians have failed to solve,” he said.

On her part, Programme Manager/Youth Coordinator, YMCA, Lagos, Omolabake Olagunju, said it was imperative for the young people to be trained to bring positive and effective changes in the country.

“We identified the problem that surrounds our nation and sought for ways to create an orientation and mind shift for the young people who are the potentials to bring the change.

“Active Citizen programme is a programme that seeks to engage young people regardless of culture, religious affiliation and bring them together to see the reason why they should cause changes in their different communities,” she said.

Source: https://guardian.ng/appointments/ymca-trains-youths-to-tackle-challenges-in-communities/