Monrovia – On Friday, January 29th, Leading Youth to Foster Transformation in Africa (LYFT Africa), a youth organization in Paynesville City, conducted a day-long brush-up trainings in Journalism, Health and Intellectualism, for at least 113 secondary students from three schools in Paynesville City.
The schools included O’Nance International Christian School, Paynesville Central Academy Annex 1 and Mount Zion Christian Academy.
The training was facilitated by volunteers of LYFT Africa and Innovation for Youth and Children’s Advancement (iyoca). Three different clubs were trained intermittently: Health, Press and Intellectual.
The health club training was facilitated by Sunnie Antonio Marcar, Jr and Dorcas Somah, volunteers of LYFT Africa. They facilitated the training using the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) lesson note, video and training toolkit centered on ‘Effective Communication for Healthy Outcome’.
As for the Press club training, Ruth Kornpaye of Big FM and Joe Fineboy of Truth FM 96.1 drilled students through News Collection, Editing, Reporting and Broadcasting. Participants of the press club were also taught the ethics of journalism. The press club training was aimed at preparing students for collecting and broadcasting news on Truth FM 96.1.
The other component of the training provided skills and methodologies to students of the Intellectual club. They were empowered with public speaking and dramatization skills to prepare them for conducting awareness, delivering public speeches and dramatization. The intellectual training was facilitated by Emmett K-Max Paye of iYOCA and Abubakar Fahnbulleh of LYFT Africa.
Other volunteers, who facilitated included Momodu Gray, Jayiah B. D. Konuwah, James K. Wilson, Neejay N. Lewis and Mrs. Mariam. D. Dukuly.
The training led to the appointment of club leaders and the establishment of Press, Health and Intellectual Clubs in the schools. The establishment of the clubs seeks to develop the careers of students who envision being medical practitioners, journalist, public speakers, and creative actors. It also prepares them for conducting health awareness in their schools and facilitating peer-training for other students and youth.
Mr. Sunnie Antonio Marcar Jr, Executive Director of LYFT Africa informed this paper that the organization have been in existence since February 2018 and has conducted several of such training in Paynesville and Kakata Cities. He stated that the organization has approximately 300 volunteers in Montserrado and Margibi counties and has partnered with other youth organizations to organize and implement several local and international events including Survivors’ Spotlight – a US $ 7,000 grant Award provided by the United States Government through its embassy in Monrovia. The program which allowed 30 COVID-19 survivors to use their story to create awareness was aired on Truth FM 96.1 and broadcasted live via Facebook for four months.
He used the opportunity to throw out his organization’s basket for sponsorship and partnerships.
