Mission Statement
Another Face of Life seeks to promote the rehabilitation of drug-addicted youth and provide at-risk youth with vocational training and life skills. The project will provide guidance and counseling classes for the duration of their participation to transform them into productive, self-sustaining, and independent citizens. Upon completion of the project, each participant will be granted admission to the subsidiary Skill Acquisition Program, an apprenticeship program conducted by the National Directorate of Employment, Maiduguri Branch.

This project achieves its objectives with the assistance of physicians, psychiatrists and spiritual leaders within the community. Another Face of Life’s bold initiatives have garnered great respect; subsequently, local businesses and women’s groups have pledged their support with generous donations totaling N70,000 (US$7,000).

Goals
The long-term goal of this project is to reduce the rate of drug addicts in Nigerian society, particularly in Maiduguri. Another Face of Life will target impressionable at-risk youth in their homes or places of communal congregation and will take participants to workshops, garages, and other sites of vocational training to acquire marketable skills. Career guidance will be provided concurrently with the chosen vocation which includes carpentry, automobile maintenance, hair dressing and barbering, vulcanization, and printing press operation.

Steps
Source: Alleviation Program, National Agency for Poverty

• Identify target group. Advertise throughout the community with posters and handbills in the vernacular. Enroll interested youth in project.
• Meet with participants individually to identify specific problem areas. Include instructors and experts for consistent guidance.
• Conduct daily classes to deal with the negative effects of drugs and drug addiction.
• Group participants according to their area of apprenticeship interest and begin skills training.
• Assess participants every three months to measure growth. Remove disinterested participants who consistently show a lack of effort to improve.
• Award Leadership Initiatives certificates to all participants upon graduation. Make soft loans to deserving participants if excess funds are available to assist with securing employment.

Results
Another Face of Life has registered tremendous results in the past year. Twenty of the thirty-five participants graduated from the project and completed the National Directorate of Employment’s Skill Acquisition Program. All twenty graduates are currently employed and drug-free. Of the fifteen who failed to graduate from the project, ten have enrolled for the next session beginning August 2005. Violent crimes in the neighborhood where these former drug dealers and users used to congregate have noticeably decreased and arrests have dropped by 75%.

Mission Statement
The rehabilitation of prisoners is a major challenge facing the Nigerian Prison System. The prisons are financially unable or unwilling to rehabilitate its prisoners; as such there has been a steady increase in criminal activity across the nation. The Better Citizens project aims to develop marketable skills for prisoners in Maiduguri during and following their incarceration so they may rejoin society as valuable citizens. Improving social and economic conditions as a whole by implanting the spirit of self-reliance, creativity, and productivity in prisoners will give this vulnerable segment of the population a much-needed second chance.

Goals
Better Citizens seeks to break the cycle of crime created, ironically, by the prison system with short- and long-term solutions. Prisoner rehabilitation through skill acquisition will promote positive prisoner interaction with the community, build each man a promising future with professional skills for employment, and fill vacancies in the ailing private sector. Employment opportunities will be further enhanced with a recognized certificate of qualifications upon completion of the vocational training course in the following areas:

• Tailoring
• Carpentry / Furniture making
• Painting
• Electronic repairs
• Handicrafts
• Shoemaking
• Automobile repair
• Laundry
• Catering

Prisoners will be educated about the world they are to re-enter through lectures in relevant areas of criminology, psychology, and sociology. The combination of all these factors will replace the stereotype that prisoners are perpetual degenerates with the notion that they can become better citizens when given the opportunity to advance.

Steps

• Contact prison rehabilitation centers to identify prisoner participants.
• Contact volunteer vocational experts to train prisoners from the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) State Ministry of Youth and Poverty Alleviation Program, National Agency for Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP), among other organizations.
• Orientate prisoners with project and divide them into groups by vocational interest. Instructors will train prisoners through lectures and applied work for a period of six to forty-eight months, depending on the nature of the skill and the length of prisoner sentences.
• Instructors monitor and assess prisoners throughout the duration of the program through tests, assignments, and performance checklists.
• Prisoners display various products for sale to the community on television or a showroom at the entrance to the prison.
• Award a certificate of recommendation to each prisoner upon completion of training in order to increase future chances of employment.

Results
Better Citizens endured many difficulties over the past year due to the long distance between the University of Maiduguri and the Borno State Prison; the price of transportation has become an increasing burden on the project and is consuming too much of the budget. The students will amend the project in August 2005 to provide a more cost-efficient program for the prisoners.

Detailed project description coming soon.

Detailed project description coming soon.

Mission Statement
Political thuggery in Nigeria today, particularly in Borno State, is of such epic proportion that the entire nation is imprisoned by fear and despair. The children in particular, because they are hungry, uneducated, and poverty-stricken, are easily co-opted by the political elite. The Hope Access Foundation seeks to provide these vulnerable youth with a new direction through job opportunities, direct employment, and incentives for enrollment in school from post-primary to tertiary institutions. Using Bursary and scholarship assistance from SSI, the foundation hopes to release Nigeria’s youth from the stranglehold of the current politicians and direct them towards transparent and principled politics.

Beneficiaries of the foundation from each local school and community will be recruited as facilitators to offer their peers comprehensive and sustainable development programs which will generate equitable economic growth. Communities are empowered, not marginalized. The priority is on education as the bedrock of nation-building.

Goals
The Hope Access Foundation seeks to educate Nigerian university students on their political, constitutional and economic rights while emphasizing moral and civic obligations in order to stamp out political thuggery and corruption.

The long-term goal is to set a political standard which eliminates political thuggery. The foundation vows to fight hunger, inadequate education, poverty, prostitution, crimes, secret cultism, and corruption – each of which contributes to the rise of governmental abuses.

During its campaign to end thuggery, The Hope Access Foundation will create a database of participants who will be considered for future employment or school enrollment incentives.

Steps

• Partner with school authorities and student leaders in order to reach primary target: Nigerian students in senior post-primary school and higher institutions of education. Contact school authorities, church and mosque leaders, and other social groups to recruit volunteers and garner support.
• Establish a Committee to include Nigerian adults and youth who will carry out the campaign together. Certificates of recommendation will be given to the committee for participating youth as incentives. Committee shall then maintain a database in order to coordinate employment opportunities for said youth.
• Partner with the National Orientation Agency and other various law enforcement agencies in order to force transparency and accountability on the local and national governments.

Results
Description coming soon.

Mission Statement
Illiteracy is far too prevalent among Maiduguri youth. The Real Change project seeks to provide literacy education and mentorship to those unable to attend school. The project aims to teach classes at an educational center in the Hausari Ward of the city, a densely populated area with a high illiteracy rate. The students will gather local English teachers to share their expertise through lectures and interactive classroom work on literacy training, English instruction, and etiquette training.

Goals
Real Change seeks to promote high literacy rates among the youth of the city, in turn elevating the standard of living and physical well-being of the population. The increased literacy, etiquette training, and mentoring of the youth will effectively transition them from the street into the workplace.

Steps

• Recruit illiterate youth, mentors, and English teachers from the Hausari ward of Maiduguri Municipal.
• Organize curriculum, mentors, instructors, and guest speakers and the primary school classrooms that will be used as meeting places. Classes will last three months.
• Assess participants through tests and homework on literacy development and etiquette. All classes will be based on a three month timeline.
• Award certificates of participation and recommendation upon successful completion of program.
• Recommend participants to continue onto the Agency for Literacy’s certification program. Ensure that participants, continuing or not, are given the opportunity for advancement through LI's strong partnership network with the professional community of Maiduguri.

Results
The Real Change project has established a significant presence in the Maiduguri community. Over the past year, it has graduated forty-five participants from its program, most of whom went on to complete an extensive certification process with the Agency for Literacy, Borno State. Twenty-five of the forty-five graduates have secured gainful employment as administrative assistants in various fields around the city. The remaining twenty graduates have gone on to establish regular English classes at seventeen participating Qu'ranic Schools throughout Maiduguri. These classes have provided the graduates with gainful part-time employment to supplement their other employment endeavors.