CITAD, IEE, MacArthur Foundation Train 100 Youths in Kano on COVID-19

The Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD has organised 10-day training for youths in Kano state on coronavirus diseases.

The training was supported by MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with International Institute of Education, IEE, the training tagged ‘ Youth Leadership Training on COVID-19 ‘ conducted online via Zoom Platform from the 17th – 28th July, 2020.

During first day of the training, Dr. (Pharmacist) Khalid Garba Muhammad of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Bayero University, Kano has delivered a topic ‘ Understanding COVID-19, key symptoms and asymptomatic infection, mode of transmission’.

Meanwhile Dr. Kabiru Danladi Lawanti of the Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria focused on the meaning and types of social media and use the platforms for passing message.

Lawanti also taught the participants how to create groups on Social Media and how to moderate such groups, also focused on monitoring and getting feedback.

On his part Mukhtar Halilu Modibbo, Community Engagement Officer at Connected development (CODE) dwelled on Community Mobilization, Identifying and Implementing Community Mobilization Activities’ .

He said ” the objective was on how to mobilize, persuade and spread their messages in their respective communities”.

Maryam Ado Haruna who is the head of JobberMan Partnership Program at CITAD discussed with the participants how to write a good Curricullum Vitae /Resume and cover Letter.

The Executive Director of CITAD, Mallam Y.Z Yau conducted a session on proposal writing as well how the participants could pitch their proposals.

The participants of the program who were selected from different communities based on the criteria set up by CITAD, after receiving many applications from interested candidates.

The trained youths are expected to carry out awareness activities on Covid19 in their respective communities.

However, the program carefully selected participants who have visibility on social media; Twitter, Facebooks, Instagram among others.

Participants laud CITAD, IEE, MacArthur Foundation
The participants of the 10-day training have commended the organisers of the training.

Narrating their experiences after the training, one of the participants, Hussaini Yunusa said ” before this training I and my friends didn’t believe Covid19 is real but with the training I came to realized that indeed covid19 is real and it exists”.

He added that ” This made me to inform my friends about the Youth Leadership Training on Covid19 which is aim to train young people that will go back and sensitize their communities and what is being discussed at the training”.

Another participant, Amina Alhassan narrated that ” with knowledge I acquired from the training I was able to change the perception of some women on COVID-19 I met in tricycle according to one of the women narrating how government is using the disease to get money from foreign countries while the other woman was saying that she has never seen a picture of a person that is infected by the virus or knows someone that seen the picture.

According to them it is only government that is manufacturing the numbers in order to scare people and get money.

I seized the opportunity and used the knowledge I gets from the training and lectured the women on why the disease is real”.

Sadik Abdurrahman believed that if there were organizations like CITAD who are sensitizing public and enlightening them about the dangers of Covid19 and how real it was just like the way HIV and Hepatitis are being discussed, the disease will easily be controlled in the society.

Abdurrahman has already started designing fliers containing messages on how to prevent the spread of COVID-1919.