As part of volunteers’ capacity building, Rural Nurture Initiative restructures her volunteers meeting into “Volunteers Connect”, with the aim of better engaging her volunteers to learn, brainstorm, craft solutions to nagging developmental problems, as well as socialise with one another. The end goal of the Volunteers Connect is to groom and equip leaders who would serve as change agents to facilitate sustainable development in Africa. The maiden edition tagged “The basics of volunteering”, hosted Abiola Iyiola from AI Leadership Consult, as the facilitator on Tuesday, July 30, 2019.
During his session, Abiola Iyiola shared that the whole of life is sitting on the efforts of givers, and mentioned that in a world where the majority wants to take, givers are due for celebration. He expounded on the power of dots, the significance of lines and how all connects; that is, how life is a giant ecosystem and how everything connects in a complex web.
He further mentioned how Pembertin’s book keeper volunteered to rename his Carmel colored syrup into what we know to be one of the largest beverage brand in the world today, then went on to dramatically talk about the basics of volunteering in the lines of contemplation below:
- Energy
- Flexibility
- Creativity
- Reliability
- Selflessness
- Passion and
- Team spirit
Using the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination as an analogy, he concluded his session on the note that “If men fail to stand on their post, lives will be lost and souls will languish.
Up next was a brainstorming session, which was anchored by the initiative’s visionaire. The volunteers were divided into two teams, team leads were appointed, and both teams were provided with development related challenges that required ingenious and viable solutions. After about fifteen minutes of brainstorming, two representatives from each team made a presentation of the developed solutions by their teams. This session was indeed insightful and very educative!
Another thrilling session was the announcement of the Volunteer of the month of July. This session was anchored by the PRO, Joanna Mustapha, who made the criteria for assessment known to the volunteers. She went further to announce that after a meticulous assessment of each volunteer’s engagement in the month of July, Adebunmi Feranmi Deborah emerged the volunteer of the month while Ayodeji Amos Oladimeji was the first runner up. With clapping ovation, Volunteer Feranmi was invited up stage to address the other volunteers. Feranmi encouraged her fellow volunteers to intensify their commitment to RNI as she shared her past volunteering story to further motivate them.
In appreciation of Abiola Iyiola who did an awesome job at facilitating the maiden edition of RNI’s Volunteers Connect, the video below is what the volunteers drew from his wealth of knowledge shared:
The initiative also expresses her profound gratitude to her esteemed volunteers, not only for their presence which made the event an outstanding success, but also for their active commitment to RNI’s vision of impacting lives among the underprivileged and creating a better African future.
