It is rather unfortunate that the one-time burning desire to orient and educate Nigerians about the deadliness and fatality of HIV/AIDS has so dropped to the barest minimum that we barely hear jingles or see sign posts to this effect, it’s indeed appalling and the question is; Has HIV been totally wiped out of Nigeria? The Child Paradigm Shift Initiative being a student body of Obafemi Awolowo Uni
versity Ile-Ife has taken it upon itself to provide and apply the cure to the roots, “training the children the way they should and getting them informed at close range through the instrumentality of The Paradigm Shift Clubs (PSCs) .”
Considering the fact that adolescents and young people constitute about 42% of the total population, they are the most important group in a society and they are a country’s most valuable assets. Adolescence being a period of transition from childhood to adulthood is a time when major life’s decisions have to be made, which is the reason why TCPSI has decided to catch them young and get them informed to correctly set their paradigms while they are still tender before they become a ‘dry fish hard to bend.’
The Organisation started with a membership figure of ten (10) which has today grown to forty nine (49) committed and dedicated volunteers. TCPSI has effectively kick-started The Paradigm Shift Club (PSC) on OAU Campus which will as well be created in foremost secondary schools in Nigeria. The organisation sometime in November 2011, organised a Mentorship Program for its Peer Educators so as to groom them for the mission ahead, the Guest lecturer at this occasion was Dr, (Mrs) Funke Obadje, other speakers at the event were Mrs Eludipo Oluwakemi, an Health Educator from Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH Ibadan), Mr Daniel from Educare Exhibition Centre, Ibadan, etc. We are an organisation that has an understanding of the times, bearing in mind the generation in which we are and the fast pace at which knowledge travels, it is pertinent to make sure that these children are armed with the right information, so that ignorance does not again destroy this generation thereby making the youngsters susceptible and vulnerable to pedophiles who are always interested in making them a prey due to their ignorance. TCPSI as a body set up to educate the Nigerian youngsters have saddled itself with the responsibility of teaching them what ought and what ought not be done by a responsible individual, thereby breeding them to be patriotic citizens both to their homes and their country Nigeria. The major issues in question which has so much bothered the hearts of youths and the ignorance of which has sentenced so many to a lifetime of addiction with its negative effects are; premarital s*x, po*******hy, peer pressure, drug abuse etc. TCPSI has come with the approach of re-orienting these children about this negativities and afterward introducing them to a correct perspective of what the future holds by educating them about S*x, Self esteem, Leadership, ICT, Entrepreneurship, Career , etc.
