I do not seek white collar job- Corps member who empowered 17,000 youths

Briefly introduce yourselfMy name is Mohammed-Bashir Abdulganiy and I am a National Youth Service Corps member currently serving in Kaduna. I had my Higher National Diploma (HND) in Chemical Engineering from Kaduna Polytechnic in 2013. At the same time, I am the Director of Privilege Foundation, a non- governmental organisation.What do you do as a […]

Briefly introduce yourself
My name is Mohammed-Bashir Abdulganiy and I am a National Youth Service Corps member currently serving in Kaduna. I had my Higher National Diploma (HND) in Chemical Engineering from Kaduna Polytechnic in 2013. At the same time, I am the Director of Privilege Foundation, a non- governmental organisation.
What do you do as a foundation?
I started the foundation in 2012 when I was still in school. Even though I am still unemployed as a graduate, I saw the need for it and that is why I took the lead looking at the time we are in today, especially the level of unemployment which is high.
Martin Luther King Junior said that “you open door of opportunity for yourself” and that is why I felt that the level of unemployment would be causing a high level of idleness and insecurity. What should be my own contribution to avoid spill-over effects of unemployment? That was why I conceived the idea of Privilege Foundation to train youths on skill acquisition, so they can be self reliant, without waiting for white collar job, which might never come. So, that was what boosted my morale to start this foundation.
How many people have you impacted with your work?
So far, I have empowered 17,250 youths within Kaduna metropolis.
What areas of skills acquisition does your training cover?
Our skills acquisition training covers leather works, solar inverter installation, tailoring, driving, fish farming and poultry, computer operation, computer engineering, satellite dish installation and catering and decoration.
Do you intend to apply for a white collar job after national service?
Despite my poor and humble background, I am not seeking a white collar job because I enjoy rendering service to humanity crested on the fact that it is making a positive impact on the teeming population of youths and it has earned me prayers and blessing from those who have benefitted, which is beyond money or other riches. What I am doing is what I like best and it is like a profession.
What is your advice to other unemployed youths out there?
My advice to youths, especially unemployed ones is to learn a skill and build up a small or medium scale business. This in turn will reduce the menace of unemployment. The white collar jobs are not readily available out there, so there is need for youths to empower themselves with skills in order to be self reliant.
Do you have any mechanism for monitoring your trainees after training?
Yes, like I said earlier, the whole thing is not just about skill acquisition. I am also into advocacy work, value re-orientation, capacity building, sensitization and networking. The networking here is, we reach out to philanthropists who cannot walk up to those idle youths and serve as a link between them. I do the same thing for my trainees so that, with a little take-off grant, they can start up something.
Is the project your personal NYSC community development service and do you wish to continue the project after NYSC?
Yes. I have filed before my NYSC State Coordinator to make the Foundation my own. To that effect, I have requested that NYSC make proper recommendation that could lead me to appropriate authorities who can support my initiative so as to achieve the desired aim of the project.
What should people expect next from Privilege Foundation?
When we made our needs analysis towards education, I discovered that, the standard of education is going down day by day. To that effect, we are reviving what we called MDG goal 2; that is, revamping the educational sector in Kaduna State. We have made giant strides to check all the primary schools and government secondary schools in terms of what they need and provide. Just recently, we distributed over 100 school uniforms, 100 textbooks, exercise books and other educational materials to Demonstration Primary School in Kawo.
This is just to motivate the pupils of government schools and see that they put in more efforts. I decided to do this because many children stay at home because they have no pen to write, with some stopping school because their uniforms are torn.
That is why I have taken that as an approach to combat the menace of students dropping out of school. LEA Ungwar Kanawa is my next target. I have the photo gallery of that school. The pupils are sitting on a bare floor; so, we have gone into a memorandum of understanding that by next month my foundation is going to provide 200 desks and chairs for the pupils of that school to serve as motivation.

In what areas will you need assistance from government and others?
We are soliciting the support of the government, well meaning Nigerians, philanthropists and those who have capacity to uplift the less privileged to support us not only financially; money is secondary. This foundation trains youths in different vocations, they can assist us with training gadgets so that we can build training structures in all the 23 local government areas of the state in order to train more youths.
My aim is to train 10,000 across all the local governments in a month. We intend to do this to reduce the menace of armed robbery, prostitution and other vices amongst youths and that is why I am seeking the support of government to support this giant stride. The government is trying because the schools we use as centres for our training are provided by the government but we still need more support in the area of training gadgets to achieve our goal.
Are there any set of students undergoing training currently?
Presently, registration is ongoing and the training is going to commence before the end of this month at Demonstration LEA Nursery and Primary School, Kawo and it is opened for all interested youths. The registration fee is just N500 and the training is free.