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Lions Quest Nigeria, implementer of Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence, a programme of the Lions Clubs International Foundation, recently trained 145 secondary school teachers in four different locations in Lagos and Ogun States.
Lions Quest is a life skills and prevention programme. It teaches young people skills necessary for everyday success such as learning to accept responsibilities, setting goals for healthy living, building self confidence, communication skills and service learning, managing emotions, improving peer relationship, strengthening family relationship as well as making healthy choices. Lions Quest is a Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programme. It is in use in over 90 countries by educators. It provides foundation for dealing with anger and frustration, peer pressure, preventing negative behaviours and developing positive behaviours that increase academic performance.
Training of teachers in a 3-day intensive workshop is the most important step in the implementation process of the Lions Quest programme. This is because the programme is curriculum-based and teachers to implement it must be certified. Those certified are issued international certificates which enable them teach the programme anywhere in the world.
These workshops were sponsored by Lions Clubs International Foundation LCIF, the charity arm of The International Association of Lions Clubs through a Core 4 Grant with funding from Lions and community leaders in Nigeria.
Implementation of the Skills for Adolescence of Lions Quest began in Nigeria in 2013 in private schools and as at today, more than 20 schools are implementing the programme. The plan is to introduce its implementation in public schools in the near future. Well over 3,000 students are currently benefiting from the programme in Nigeria. This has been made possible with the previous Teachers Training Workshops that were held in 2013 and 2015.
The 2017 workshops were anchored by a Lions Quest Senior Trainer and Coach, Archana Bhatt from India as well as Kola Oyekanmi and Olapeju Paraiso. In order to reduce the associated costs of organising these Teachers Training Workshops in Nigeria and meet the expansion needs of the programme in the country, both Kola Oyekanmi and Olapeju Paraiso have also been certified as Lions Quest Trainers.
Suffice it to say that expansion of the implementation of the programme in Nigeria will widen the scope of prevention on many youths from the risks of drinking alcohol, smoking and drug use and abuse.
Modestus Anaesoronye
