About 45 youths in Ipaja Lagos have received skill acquisition training programme organized by the Ipaja Central Lion’s Club, chapter of the International Association of Lions Clubs Lagos, which aimed at making them self-reliant.
The gesture was the non-governmental organization’s effort to complement the government at job creation for youths.
Themed “Bottle Recycling: Transforming Used Plastics Into Home Appliances”, the programme was a from-waste-to-wealth campaign to drive the country’s need to create wealth from plastic waste basically from pep bottles and a clean environment message.
The one-day workshop held recently at Ipaja in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State had youths including some parents in attendance. The facilitator, Temitope Okunu, CEO, FABER International Foundation and consultant in bottle recycling business, engaged the youths in a robust up-cycling training, which involves the creative use of wastes into functional products.
OKunu stressed that people should start sorting their wastes into pep bottles, nylons, among other categories for recycling and up-cycling purposes.
The facilitator noted that turning waste plastics into wealth is a lucrative business that generates sustainable income for the investor, urging youths to venture into the business.
The facilitator warned that people should stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse as this increases the depletion of the ozone layer, which is the cause of global climate change.
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Participants were divided into four groups of eleven people, and with a leader respectively. Pep plastic bottles sourced from within the environment from the waste materials were transformed into beautiful home furniture (stools) that have international appeal.
The process of the up-cycling graduated from stage-to-stage and participants learned with keen interest, while the facilitator demonstrated skillfully in the production process.
A thorough inspection was carried out to ensure that each group learned in line with the approved standard.
Speaking at the close of the programme, Professor Wole Atoyebi, president, Ipaja Central Lions Club, explained that the major thrust of the club is to save humanity through skill acquisition and awareness creation. He said the training is designed to empower the youths to learn about the plastic recycling business.
Atoyebi, who is a surgeon with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), stressed that the club is concerned about the dangers of climate change and prepared to improve the situation through the clean-up environmental campaign.
“We want to make the environment clean by removing plastic bottles that are littered around the environment and transforming them into home appliances through recycling.”
The club’s president said the programme was geared towards youths’ empowerment basically to enable them to earn a decent living and assured that his organization was ready to monitor and support them financially for the business start-up.
Ayotebi added that his club’s next programme would focus on health matters, specifically diabetes mellitus, so as to make people aware of its reality, prevention, and management.
The participants expressed gratitude to the organizers of the program for exposing them to the empowerment skill with the hope of starting up.
Onyike Precious, a participant said, “I am happy to be a part of this skill acquisition program. The training is an eye-opener to me because I have learned today, what I never knew and I am ready to explore.” Another participant, Bisi Oluwa remarked that “A training like this is good for the youths to enable them to discover their potential for economic development and self-reliance.” They asked the organizers to do more of the training so that more youths would benefit.
The workshop, which lasted for about four hours, showed a sign of satisfaction among the attendants, who for the first time had such an opportunity.
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