Over 186,946 girls empowered in 14 years as YEF ends goal project

…Stakeholders chart course for project sustainability in public schools

About 168,946 girls in selected public schools across the country were empowered through the Goal Project of the Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF) in the past 14 years.

The project, which started in 2010, was sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and had grown increasingly popular among selected public schools in Lagos, Oyo States, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

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Among others, the Goal Project empowers adolescent girls on vocational skills, football, taekwondo, gender-based abuse, violence, financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.

To commemorate the end of the 14 years project and to chart the way forward for the Goal Project, the foundation last week held this year’s annual stakeholders meeting in Lagos, where stakeholders in the benefitting schools deliberated on sustainability of the project after the end of the first phase.

At the meeting, many of the stakeholders and teachers in the benefitting schools called for the continuity of the Goal Project and offered useful ideas and suggestions on the forward after the end of this first phase.

Speaking during the stakeholder meeting, the Executive Secretary of Youth Empowerment Foundation, Iwalola Akin–Jimoh, stated that she did not believe the Goal Project would last up to fourteen years when it started in 2010.

She revealed that the Goal Project had helped thousands of adolescent girls who are now leaders in different spheres by empowering them with different life skills in the last fourteen years.

He said that the stakeholder’s engagement with schools’ leaders, teachers and contact persons was to intimate them of the progress the Goal Project had achieved over the last 14 year and to chat the wayward.

Akin–Jimoh noted that over the years several adolescent girls’ lives had been transformed after they took part in the Goal Project training, stressing that several beneficiaries were now professionals in different fields and successful entrepreneurs.

According to her, “One of the few things we have seen over the last 14 years of very hard work is that girls who have passed through the projects are now coaches giving back in their various communities and also now business owners.

“One of the key things about the Goal Project was that we never knew it would be a project that would last 14 years. We were expecting engagement of two or three years but look at the impact on the girls; when you build their capacity, they end up being perfect leaders.

“We now have a situation where some benefitting girls are now back in the same schools they attended and training girls on these skills. For me this is something that is fulfilling.

“We have a generation of girls who have passed through this program and wherever they are, they are always remembering the fact that I went through something called the Goal Project. I have a network; I think that is something that is key.”