The August edition of Volunteers Connect was in no doubt a memorable one, as it marked the first to take place at RNI’s new office, with so much to learn in a lively atmosphere. The theme of discussion was “Volunteerism: youths’ involvement in achieving the SDGs in Africa” and Sarah Temilade CHIEJILE of Secure a Future Foundation, did a laudable justice in facilitating the session.

Sarah explained the transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and elaborated on the need for youths to rise to the challenge of nation building and achieving the SDGs. She stated that as youths, we have the largest population in Africa, however, our strength is not only in our number but in our creativity, energy, passion, pro-activeness, dynamism, tenacity, resilience, etc.

She also enumerated the benefits of volunteering towards any noble cause, using RNI as a case study and quoted Mahatma Gandi, saying: “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. To conclude, she expounded on the need to generate data for research purposes, as well as the necessity of effective supervision, monitoring and evaluation of projects.

After her session, which stirred up the Volunteers towards making a better commitment in achieving the SDGs in Africa, there was a quiz competition a.k.a “Development affairs”, between the two Volunteer teams (Team Achievers and Trailblazers). Development related questions were asked to facilitate joint learning and team work. Team Trailblazers emerged as winner of the quiz competition.

The Volunteer of the month, which was announce at a latter time, was Ayodeji Amos OLADIMEJI, while the first and second runner-ups were Feranmi Deborah ADEBUNMI and Olasunkanmi OGUNNUBI, respectively.

See more pictures below: