About 70, 000 people have benefited from the sensitization and empowerment programmes of the Power Forward Project done by Africare Nigeria in collaboration with ExxonMobil and the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Senior coaches of the programme made the disclosure yesterday during the maiden inaugural meeting of the alumni association of the project in Abuja.
Okechukwu Uwakwe, senior head coach of the project, Africare Nigeria, said the beneficiaries were empowered with public health messages, life skills information and development of basketball skills.
He said the project was implemented in 30 secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), adding that the empowered students also led community initiatives that stepped down the public health information in their schools and communities through peer to peer engagement.
“Every year in the last six years, we target educating and assisting communities about public health, life skills, and other community initiatives through students involvement in the programme,” he said.
Uwakwe said 35, 000 people were targeted for empowerment this year through activities commemorating the Global Hand Washing Day, World Toilet Day, World Malaria Day, World Menstrual Hygiene Day, and World AIDS Day among others.
While saying that the targeted number of beneficiaries this year had been surpassed, he said the project had to include the World Menstrual Hygiene Day because of the low awareness and unhealthy practices among students particularly those in public secondary schools.
A beneficiary of the programme and member of the alumni association, Sarah Kertyo, said the project improved her skills in basketball, and also deepened her knowledge about diseases, respect for others, conflict resolution and ways to impact on the lives of others to mention a few.
The programme said the alumni was created to track former students who were previously engaged in project activities but have graduated from the project and their secondary schools.
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