A global humanitarian agency, Mercy Corps, has gone into partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to implement a project tagged: ‘Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE)’.

Mercy Corps is the lead implementing partner for ENGINE, which is a multi donor-funded programme supported by DFID, Coca Cola Export Company and the Nike Foundation.

The programme seeks to improve the learning outcomes and economic status of marginalised adolescent girls aged 16 to 19, in the northern Nigerian states of Kano and Kaduna as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Metropolitan city of Lagos.

The NYSC and Mercy Corps signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on  Wednesday on the partnership that will involve the engagement of female corps members to deliver extra hours of classes to girls in schools that have been selected for the programme in the affected states.

Speaking on the occasion, the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Johnson Olawumi, noted that the presence of the scheme in all the nooks and crannies of the country makes it attractive.

Olawumi, who stressed that the issues of development should not be left to the government alone, commended the Mercy Corps for its good works in Nigeria.
He further remarked that partnering with Mercy Corps would enhance the NYSC scheme’s visibility and also help the corps in achieving its goals.

While assuring  them of the scheme’s commitment to the success of the project, he charged the Mercy Corps to ensure that it plays its own part of the deal as contained in the MoU.

In her address, the Country Director of the Mercy Corps, Ms. Iveta Ouvry, said the objective of the organisation, which is working in over fo 42 countries, was to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build, secure productive and just communities among others.

Ouvry said the partnership with the NYSC to educate Nigerian girls is meant to empower the target group as part of effort to transform communities.
Earlier, the Acting Director of Community Development Service and Special Projects in the NYSC Headquarters, Mrs. Victoria Okakwu, had explained that under the project, trained corps members would put in two hours every week to teach young girls in science subjects.

She added that they would also coordinate the girls into groups and monitor their progress.