Community Outreach by Youth Corps Medical TeamBy Andrew Ogara
“It is expected that Corps members ….be agents of change, contributing towards the development of their host communities.”
“The
Community Development Service (CDS) is aimed at harnessing the skills,
creativity and innovativeness of corps members ….in identifying the needs of
their host communities and mobilizing members of their host communities to
embark on the project”
-NYSC on their Traditional Community
Development Service and Integrated Rural Development.
Every corps member
participating in the mandatory one-year Community Development Service (CDS) of
the NYSC scheme should see his/her position and role as essentially that of a
change agent for societal development. By seeing themselves from this
perspective, corps members are able to have a clearly defined purpose for
participating in the scheme. It equally makes it possible for corps members to
be adequately orientated or trained, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in
the discharge of their duties.
I have mentioned
elsewhere that the NYSC scheme is indeed an essential platform for youth
participation in development since corps members are not only critical actors
in Nigeria’s quest for development, they constitute a potential reservoir of
power, knowledge and influence, that will in the near future participate in
shaping and setting the nation’s human and sustainable social development
agenda.
We live in a region and a
nation affected by diverse national and global development challenges. These
challenges and concerns range from widespread poverty, environmental concerns/
climate change, human right issues, social injustice/inequality, corruption,
bad governance/misrule, to general ill – health among the citizens, homelessness,
widespread unemployment, dearth of essential social services and
infrastructure, famine and food insecurity, violent crimes including rape,
rural – urban migration, trafficking in human persons, drug use and drug abuse,
communal conflicts etc.
Although government is
making effort to address these challenges, however, given the magnitude of the
problems, government cannot do it alone. Government’s effort need to be
supported by every Nigerian, especially the Nigerian youth, who represent a
major stakeholder in the nation’s overall development effort. NYSC therefore
presents an important platform for youth participation in development.
Personally, I regard the NYSC scheme as a national development intervention
programme, deliberately put in place by the nation’s visionary leaders to
prepare a critical mass of socially and educationally empowered Nigerian youths
for practical participation in the nation’s social and human development
sector.
However, it is important
to note that central to the overall success of the scheme is the Community
Development Service (CDS) component which was conceived as a rural development
strategy with the goal of promoting the active involvement of corps members who
are potential leaders of the nation in tackling and addressing the nation’s
rural and urban development challenges.
Consequently, many corps
members have been motivated and many of them have gone beyond their normal
duties and assignments to execute and implement various people – centred
projects and programmes in their target communities across the nation.
Executing such development projects by corps members has become the bench mark
for measuring individual corps members’ performance. It has equally become one
of the criteria or standards for giving awards and honour by the federal, state
and local governments.
Transiting
from National Service to Social Entrepreneurship
The activities of
corps members as agents of change in their host communities during their
one-year Community Development Service (CDS) include identifying societal or
social challenges, problems and areas of need in their host communities and
adopting innovative ways of addressing these concerns. Corps members have
embarked on various people – oriented projects/programmes in areas such as health,
education, water and sanitation, housing, environmental protection, economic
empowerment, improving the plight of the urban poor, provision of rural
infrastructure etc.
This is similar to the
field of social entrepreneurship. They both seek to solve societal problems
through innovative practices. While corps members’ participation in the
compulsory one year CDS basically helps to expose them to the concept of public
good, public interest or social mission only, social entrepreneurship
incorporates both financial and social mission. As a social entrepreneur, one
has the opportunity to start, develop, lead or manage your own innovative
company or organization.
Whether your discipline
or passion is in the field of education, health, politics, ICT, youth development,
engineering, women empowerment, law/human rights, reproductive health,
agriculture, transportation, environmental/ climate change, urban or rural
development, social entrepreneurship, provides one with the opportunity to turn
one’s passion in addressing these national and global issues into a prestigious
endeavour and a financially rewarding career.
In the next blog, we will
be sharing on the vast and limitless career/job opportunities available in the
social sector and how development
finance and philanthropic resources are currently directed to social
entrepreneurship organizations to support young men and women with ideas and
insights on how to address these societal problems.
