Thursday, November 25, 2010

Liberation of the soul

Young people will remain in a state of ignorance and ineptitude until a deliberate effort is made to groom them and infuse them with values, skills, and opportunities to build themselves, their communities and the nation. Please do not blame them. We cannot expect people nurtured and groomed in Slavery, Colonialism, and Military Styled Government to raise forward thinking, positive thinking and confident children. It is tantamount to asking a Slave to Raise a Prince for the Palace. He cannot teach him beyond his understanding of human relations, which is that of a Slave and a Master. The Slave does not and cannot understand the sort of relationship that exists between a Prince and A crowned KING.

  
 

If we need to raise Confident, Forward thinking, reasonable intelligent and Responsible children, we need to entrust them to those skilled in the Protocols of the Palace.

  
 

We need teach them responsibility, Individual and Communal Responsibility, Financial Responsibility, Accountability of time and related resources.

We need to teach them life skills: the Art of speaking well, excellent grooming, Managing conflict and Managing Relationships , Writing and journaling for effective communication, Presentation skills, Building and managing their Personal BRANDs, Entrepreneuring , the beauty and Joy of Volunteering, the Art of Giving, Fundraising for Common Good.

Harnessing People for change.

  
 

Learning the power of the MEDIA, Having a palace styled Mindset and culture takes a lot and we cannot afford to entrust such a sensitive responsibility to slaves with low self esteem, Inferiority complex, who lack creative thinking, who are educated by rote memorization, Who cannot see opportunities for enterprise but see Government and governance as a source of Income, not a place of contribution but of distribution of the common wealth to a privileged few.

  
 

I challenge you today to ask yourself what kind of children you would rather have. Children who always obey you without questioning or children who always ask why? The children who obey are doing kids! Children who ask why are thinking kids! Look inwards again and ask yourself which of these two kinds of children have changed their worlds?

  
 

I do not advocate rebellious kids; they do us no Good, but fuel the passion of thinking children. We cannot solve any problem with the same level of thinking we were when we created them, when you have the privilege of a form of thinking at an escalated level from the problem, acknowledge it and nurture it.

  
 

My passion to see A visible difference in the quality of young people raised in Nigeria today has informed the establishment of Project STRETCH as a an intervention Plan to Raise TODAYS LEADERS equipped with Life Skills, Values Reorientation and a Mindset of Common Good as against Individual Satisfaction. Thinking community development and Good governance is difficult in a country with over 70% living below the Poverty Line of 1 dollar a day.

  
 

Its pretty difficult I must say to convince a hungry man with no hope for the next meal to refuse an offer of 1000 Nigerian Naira for 'a simple lie that won't hurt anyone'. Only a man with strong values who believes in his values and who is willing to remain honorable can resist that. All hope is not lost however if we teach our children to think at the macro level and proffer solutions to communal problems even at their level. Then we would be raising responsible children who can refuse a tempting offer when you are not looking.

  
 

Our children are going to have to compete on a global field of play where the rules are near standardized. If they lack the requisite skills to make a success of themselves it would be because we have not given it to them.

Human Capital is the greatest Asset any nation can possess but the quality of that capital and what it can deliver will be dependent on the investments in its development.

  
 

Today we lament that our graduates are not getting placements, as over 200,000 walk the streets in search of any job at all, even though they studied specifics.

  
 

  
 

PROJECT STRETCH is passionate about Raising a Fresh Generation Of young People who are self aware, Responsible, Skilled and community centric, and academically excellent. I believe in the power of young people and I will commit my life to build this crop of young persons.

  
 

Raising A new generation of leaders, Building Communities.

  
 

Live your best life today

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
























From Anyigba with love: Three days of intensive coaching in leadership and life skills for young people in Anyigba..











Young people will remain in a state of ignorance and ineptitude until a deliberate effort is made to groom them and infuse them with values, skills , and opportunities to build themselves, their communities and the nation. Please do not blame them . We cannot expect people nurtured and groomed in Slavery, Colonialism, and Military Styled Government to raise forward thinking, positive thinking and confident children. it is tantamount to asking a Slave to Raise a Prince for the Palace. He cannot teach him beyond his understanding of human relations , which is that of a Slave and a Master. the Slave does not and cannot understand the sort of relationship that exists between a Prince and A crowned KING.

If we need to raise Confident, Forward thinking, reasonable intelligent and Responsible children, We need to entrust them to those skilled in the Protocols of the Palace.

We need teach them responsibility ,Individual and Communal Responsibility, Financial Responsibility, Accountability of time and related resources.
We need to teach them life skills: the Art of speaking well, excellent grooming, Managing conflict and Managing Relationships , Writing and journaling for effective communication, Presentation skills, Building and managing their Personal BRANDs, Entrepreneuring , the beauty and Joy of Volunteering, the Art of Giving, Fundraising for Common Good.
Harnessing People For change.

Learning the power of the MEDIA, Having a palace styled Mindset and culture takes a lot and we cannot afford to entrust such a sensitive responsibility to slaves with low self esteem, Inferiority complex , who lack creative thinking, who are educated by rote memorization,Who cannot see opportunities for enterprise but see Government and governance as a source of Income, not a place of contribution but of distribution of the common wealth to a privileged few.

I challenge you today to ask yourself what kind of children would you rather have. children who always obey you without questioning, or children who always ask why? the children who obey are doing kids! children who ask why are thinking kids! look inwards again and ask yourself which of this two kinds of children have changed their worlds?

I do not advocate rebellious kids, they do us no Good , but fuel the passion of thinking children. we cannot solve any problem with the same level of thinking we were when we created them, when you have the privilege of a form of thinking at an escalated level from the problem, acknowledge it and nurture it.

My passion to see A visible difference in the quality of young people raised in Nigeria today has informed the establishment of Project STRETCH as a an intervention Plan to Raise TODAYS LEADERS equipped with Life Skills, Values Reorientation and a Mindset of Common Good as against Individual Satisfaction. Thinking community development and Good governance is difficult in a country with over 70% living below the Poverty Line of 1 dollar a day.

Its Pretty difficult i must say to convince a hungry man with no hope for the next meal to refuse an offer of 1000 naira for 'a simple lie that won't hurt anyone' . Only a man with strong values who believes in his values and who is willing to remain honorable can resist that. All hope is not lost however if we teach our children to think at the Macro level and Proffer solutions to communal problems even at their level. Then we would be raising Responsible children who can refuse a tempting offer when you are not looking.

Our children are going to have to compete on a global field of play where the rules are near standardized. If they lack the requisite skills to make a success of themselves it would be because we have not given it to them.
Human Capital is the greatest Asset any nation can possess but the quality of that capital and what it can deliver will be dependent on the investments in its development.

Today we Lament that our graduates are not getting Placements, as over 200,000 walk the streets in search of any job at all even though they studied specifics.


PROJECT STRETCH is passionate about Raising a Fresh Generation Of young People Who are Self aware, Responsible , Skilled and community centric, and academically excellent. I believe in the power of young people and I will commit my life to Build this crop of young persons.

Raising A new generation of leaders, Building Communities.

Promoting Africa and Africans

Sunday, June 1, 2008

STEPPING OUT

A young lady was posted to serve her nation in the State with the only confluence in Nigeria.while at the National youth Service Orientation camp in a town of Okun speaking people within the confluence state, she interacted with a number of young people, who earned a living(more like stipends to me) by doing the laundry of corps members who could afford it.
Her conversation with this people, shocked her beyond words. On their life ambition?many just wanted to make enough money to keep body and soul together. on why they were in school ? not many knew why and only went cos everyone said it was the in thing. On their future ambitions? no idea! the most ambitious just wanted to be able to live in the state capital. Not one aspired to be a lawyer? Doctor? or even a Dancer !
Asked why this was so many of this kids said the most successful people( meaning the people with access to spending funds) lived in the state capital.
This young lady pondered not on the present situation, but what the future would be with 'moneymotivated' young people without ambition or a sense of responsibility to their community,
Many of these young ones were WAEC candidates but could not construct their sentences without errors. She was depressed and began thinking up a solution to this national disaster.
The weeks following the orientation camp gave her the opportunity to come up with a solution: A leadership Infusion Session for Select School students, who will experience the practical experiential learning and go back to the schools to live the message, share the message and make a difference in their community. This was the beginning of Project STRETCH...Strive to Reach Every Challenge. Project STRETCH is simply STRETCH the mind of the young person to see not just what he should do, but what he is capable of doing.
Within every young person lies the capability to do great things, if he is aware, guided and willing to stretch beyond visible boundaries.
when you have a plan Gods Provision, becomes inevitable.
The lady,23,came up with a curriculum, to teach this children via interactive learning a few of these topics:
  • The Mindset and lifestyle of leaders
  • Thinking Royalty, Living it now
  • Choosing your friends
  • Managing my Time
  • Start Early Retire Rich_(financial Management)
  • Goal setting
  • Effective communication and presentation skills( Speaking )
  • Laws of Academic Excellence
  • Self discovery to personal mastery
  • Learning from the Eagle
  • Managing change
  • Team Counts: team building
  • negotiating a Win-Win
  • Beyond your limits: breaking out
  • Giving back to your community: teaching Volunteerism.

A 5-day life leadership infusion session for students nominated by the schools, it was a refreshing experience for the tutors and an eye opener for the students, of Kogi state.

Without any Government support but support from individuals desirous of change Project Stretch has successfully trained and is monitoring 50 students from Lokoja town and 30 from Anyigba Town, the home of the state-owned university

It has been an experience for Omotola Fawunmi to step out to add value to the lives of these children.

the erroneous reference to this young people as leaders of tomorrow , gives room for the deferment of their groominng to tomorrow

PROJECT STRETCH is raising leaders of today.

With a Commitment to raise Value centered leaders, Principled and disciplined enough to lead other classmates to build their immediate constituencies(school.home.etc).People who will lead today, not waiting for a tomorrow that never comes.

We say LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE TODAY. You may not have another