COMMUNITY AND VOLUNTEER SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR ADOLESCENTS AT OLG

🙏Engaging in community service provides students with the opportunity to become active / positive members of their community and enables them acquire life skills / knowledge, while providing a service to those who need it most.

🙏It makes them feel good about themselves and satisfied when results are seen in the children they worked with.

🇳🇬Community/Volunteer service for adolescent at OLG started formally in 2018 when the Loyola Jesuit College (LJC) approached Late Engr Chidi Izuwah and I, to allow their SS2 students spend 3 weeks (about 100 hours per student) helping special needs children at our centre. This has continued over the years, and we had the 4th sets of students July – August this year.
👌Due to the positive effects it had on the adolescents who came and made a difference, who bonded with our special kids and increased awareness/advocacy for special needs amongst the youth, other schools such as Royal family academy, International Community School and Jesuit Memorial College Port Harcourt (JMC) started sending their students as well.

👏Some parents have made it compulsory that their children equally participate due to improvements in patience, values (being more responsible), personal knowledge and better interpersonal communication skills their wards learnt

👊We usually have 30 to 40 volunteer students (13–19-year-olds) annually. They are taught about the different disabilities in children.

😇Assignments are given in groups such as research on special needs, developing teaching aids, participate and organize cultural day for special needs children, Cogniart and compound management of OLG. Most are made to do presentations and they are assigned to work with therapist as an extra parent to the special needs children which is rotated every week.
👍Other activities include washing and cleaning, feeding, reading, teaching academic skills, being a buddy, play skills e t c.

💂‍♀️Master Fidel who just completed self-community service after 100 hours volunteer work on 27th Oct, 2021 told me how he relates better with his younger sister with lots of patience and now helps his mom in the house because of the exposure he had at OLG.

😇Did I forget to mention that this provides good references for Students who apply for scholarship for their university/college.

👏I thank all the schools/Parents who have ensured these students spend time with us especially LJC/JMC as they have been God sent while giving back to the community. Most of them have never seen children with disabilities, and this made them appreciate God more while being humbled/ thankful for what they have.

✊💪🙏Let Adolescents be Volunteers and participate in Community service… because they will develop high moral selfless attitude towards others as an adult.