Prepared by Lucia Valente

On February 8, we met with some of the team members at SOS in Abuja. I had been in touch with Victor Ogbonnaya and his team at SOS for a few months, via phone and email and it was terrific to meet in person. www.skillsoutsideschool.org

SOS is doing really good work with students in the Abuja area. There are several key initiatives that the team works on with local schools, universities and industries.

Having spent most of my career in Human Resources and Organizational Development it is impressive, for me, to gain insights into some of the work being undertaking by SOS.

For example, the SOS team are, rightly, proud of the work that they are doing to link students with industries and organizations. SOS has initiated ‘co-op’ and internship programs to facilitate students making more informed decisions about their future career direction.

A key focus of the work of SOS is to prepare young people for the future – to give them the opportunity to pursue their dreams. they do this in several ways and focus on realistic and tangible outcomes for their young students.

Like many of the educators I met while in Nigeria, both in the non-profit sector and in the academic arena, they direct their efforts to the future. They are aware of the latent talents within this young generation of Nigerians and foster an environment that provides them with opportunities to build on these talents.

It is so interesting to note that Nigeria has quite a different demographic picture to that of Europe and North America. In fact, it is the opposite as this picture shows.