With the increasing of numbers of people affected with the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the Government has decided to put measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus by closing down schools and placing a ban on public gatherings.
Based on this government policy, The International Award for Young People Nigeria knowing that it might affect the delivery of the Award because most of the activities are carried out in school and gathering of young people, have put together strategies that can assist your participants to continue their Award activities in the Skills, Voluntary Service and Physical Recreation sections of the Award to ensure that they can keep their Award progress on track and combat the inevitable boredom and anxiety many young people may face. During these uncertain times, it’s important for your participants to stay engaged, active and healthy in a safe and positive way and the Award can be a great way of doing so.
This is to make sure our participant maximize this period of time to learn, improve, be fit, and develop themselves.
Below are the suggested ways for your participants to continue Award activities at home, whilst providing enough evidence to Assessors and Award Leaders to continue progressing goals.
Skills
The skill section of the Award can be easily carried out from the confines of the home especially, if the skills are painting, graphic designing, web designing, hairdressing, photography, draft, chess, music, cooking etc. You can carry out such activities from the house. Participants should contact their Activity Coach or Assessor to help and make use of the internet to find tutorials to help continue your progress towards that skill. Remember to record and post pictures of the skill activities on the ORB.
Voluntary Service
Voluntary Service activities are not difficult to be carried out from the house. Participants can engage in domestic voluntary service within the house. Participants who carry out their voluntary activities in group can still maintain their group by creating a group chat and collectively deciding the activities to do that is suitable for all the group members.
Participants can engage in creating awareness or releasing materials that will help humanity online on various platform such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram or creating a blog page.
Physical Recreation
This section is based on the belief that a healthy body is a good end in itself and can often help to develop a healthy mind. Physical activity is essential for a person’s well-being, and by introducing young people to enjoyable physical activity they will hopefully develop long-term beneficial habits. Accomplishing a physical challenge also gives a lasting sense of achievement and satisfaction.
Participants may either take up a completely new activity or seek to improve their ability in an activity that they already do which can be carried out in the house. There are numerous Physical Recreation activities that can be carried out to develop strength, coordination, reflexes, flexibility or fitness that will contribute to your goal such as dancing, swimming, aerobics, skipping, or by doing your own home workouts etc. Participants can contact their Activity Coach or Assessor to get some ideas, or they can look online to find limitless ideas for home workout sessions to work towards your chosen goal.
Remember to record and upload your physical activities, also post pictures or videos of your workout plans to your ORB weekly logs.
Adventurous Journey and Gold Residential Project
Many planned practice and qualifying Adventurous Journeys have been delayed for now because of the spread of the virus in Nigeria and Gold Residential project which involves participants residing in a particular location is put on hold to prevent the spread.
However, participants that have pre-planned their journey can still work with the groups by studying the environment that was pre-planned to be the location for the journey or by studying map and doing route study. There are many resources available online with activities to develop your navigation, first aid, environmental awareness and camp craft skills that you can do at home. Communication between participants can be done via mail or social media groups.
It’s important to stay in contact with your team and supervisor so that you can ensure that when your school or organization reopens and your journeys can resume, you will be more prepared!
For Gold Residential Project, communication should be on going with the organization you keen to support and/or work with for your project. Take out time to plan, prepare, goals and how the Residential project is to be accomplished.
Note: No activities should be carried out outside the house by schools, participants, activity coach or assessor within or outside the country without the permission of the local public health or relevant government authorities
Changing and Maintaining Sustainable Award Activities.
Due to the virus outbreak, it’s obvious that participants might need to change their Award activities to continue the Award at home.
This can be considered but, proper communication should be made with the Award Leader to choose sustainable Award activities.
We appreciate our highly esteemed Award Leaders for their tireless efforts in mentoring their participants and schools who are giving their best in the delivery of the Award.