GANGLION SYNAPSE PROJECT

Changemaker: Victor Daniels

Country of implementation: Nigeria

Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the World, nearly 75 percent of tertiary institution applicants in Nigeria fail to be admitted every year. The World Bank pegs tertiary education enrolment in the country to around 10%, compared to 70-80% in high-income countries. The implication of this is a vicious cycle of poor literacy, unemployment, poverty, and inability to attain full potential. The reasons for this situation are numerous, but mainly include unaffordability, poor access, and scarce career counseling and mentorship opportunities. The Ganglion Initiative (TGI) is a youth-led, volunteer-driven organization established in 2017 to contribute significantly to solving these challenges. Our flagship project is the “Synapse” which involves school outreaches providing curated career guidance and continued mentorship to students provided career outreaches and mentorship to more than 20 schools across Nigeria in which young people (primary and high school) students were mentored by our team of

professionals from diverse backgrounds on choosing the right career paths and how to navigate and be successful in any career discipline. This program integrated a wide range of facilitation tools and activities to better foster the student’s engagement during each session. Hence, TGI provided these schools' libraries with copies of different volumes of their well-curated and designed career booklets for students to have access to various career options and how to go about choosing a career. To better cover a larger reach while amplifying our impacts, TGI also provides curated remote mentoring opportunities to more than 100 students across Nigeria via virtual platforms like Zoom for 6-months.

Thus far, these projects have impacted more than 1000 students towards making the right career choice and becoming a better version of themselves towards tackling ravaging challenges in their communities.