By Perpetua Onuegbu

No fewer than 300 youths are set to benefit from leadership and entrepreneurial training through the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA) 2025, organised by Rotary International.

District Governor of District 9127, Dame Joy Okoro, said this at the opening ceremony of the training on Monday in Abuja.

She said the gesture was to equip them with the ideals of service.

According to her, the annual programme is one of the key tenets of Rotary International, saying the theme for the 2025 edition was “Passion, Action, Reaction.”

“They’ll be here for five days, after which they’ll vacate the camp and in the process they’ll be taught different skills.

“They will be taught how to make shoes, how to make bags, even disposable sanitary wares, which we have demonstrated a few minutes ago, photography and lots of them.

“Our mission this year is to make sure that as they are leaving the camp, they would have been empowered.

“Instead of looking to get a white-collar job which we don’t have available, they can start up with these skilful things they have learned from this place.

“There’s someone we trained here two years ago. He’s now a cobbler. He makes shoes and he’s one of our facilitators. He’s coming to teach others.”

Okoro said that was the objective of the academy to see youths trained to become useful to themselves, their immediate society and to humanity at large.

On her part, Mrs Olajumoke Ekeinde, Chair for RYLA 2025, said the programme was transformational and continued to improve on efforts to impact youths across their districts.

“In Rotary, we have what we call the five avenues of service. The youth service is one of them because it is one of our avenues of service and youth is a core part of Rotary activity.

On the method of selecting the participants, she said clubs were asked to go to their adopted communities and select youths from there.

“We have what we call adopted communities in our clubs (places where we pick to carry out our humanitarian services) reach out to the youth in those communities.

“Let’s begin to impact them so that the ripple effect is being felt by everyone and the whole nation.

“The participants, aged between 15 and 30, include boys, girls, and youths of all abilities, including those with special needs.

“So, it’s an all-inclusive package for our youth,” Ekeinde said.

Delivering the keynote address titled “From Passion to Impact,” Dr Othman Abdulrasheed described success as the realisation of set goals.

He urged participants to shift their mindset from “should” to “must”, explaining that a must mindset fostered persistence and resilience, driving individuals to pursue success regardless of challenges.

According to Abdulrasheed, participants are also encouraged to reshape the narratives they tell about themselves, stressing the importance of positive self-talk and identifying personal passions.

Also speaking, Dr Bab Abdul, in his presentation on “Unlocking Youth Potential: Enhancing Emotional Intelligence and Resilience” advised participants to resist despondency and focus on the brighter side of life.

He urged them to be intentional about the opportunities Rotary offered.

Abdul, himself an alumnus of the academy, told participants they could achieve their goals by making five logical changes: their environment, attitude, skills, beliefs, and identity.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that RYLA 2025 is a week-long programme organised by Rotary District 9127, which spans 16 states and the FCT.

The programme, which began on Aug. 3 and ends on Aug. 9, will train participants in areas such as digital content creation, decoration and event planning, shoe and bag making, confectionery, among other vocational skills. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Kevin Okunzuwa