ExxonMobil, Others to Empower 10,000 People

• ExxonMobil, Others to Empower 10,000 People

The fourth edition of a youth development programme organised by ExxonMobil, National Basketball Association and Africare, is expected to empower 10,000 beneficiaries drawn from schools and vulnerable communities.

A statement on Wednesday said the Power Forward programme would teach and mentor 300 students from 10 secondary schools annually in Abuja on health literacy and life skills such as leadership, respect and personal responsibility through basketball and other programming to positively impact the students.

The partners were quoted as saying that the intervention included a malaria prevention campaign during which the participating youths would distribute 6,000 bed nets and install 20 hand-wash stations in internally displaced persons camps to promote hygiene.

The Technical Director, NBA Africa, Franck Traore, said, “This programme has held three major kick-off events with more than 6,000 students and very important persons in attendance. We have embarked on several interventions at the IDP centres for malaria prevention and sanitation exercise.”

The statement said since 2000, ExxonMobil-supported programmes had distributed more than 14 million bed nets, nearly three million diagnostic tests and more than four million anti-malaria treatments, reaching more than 125 million people worldwide.

The Power Forward programme is a co-initiative of ExxonMobil through its foundation which engages in a range of philanthropic activities that improve basic education, promote women as catalysts for development, and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries, according to the statement.