Tosin Adebusuyi is the Team Lead and Executive Director of Treasure Jars Youth Centre. I met Tosin during the Obama Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) Training in Ghana where I discovered she is touching the lives of Nigerian youth through her NGO based in Osun state, Nigeria. I caught up with her recently where she talked in great detail about her organisation and some of their major successes. Continue reading below.

More on Treasure Jars Youth Centre

Treasure Jars Youth Centre is a youth-focused non-governmental organisation with focus on Adolescent Health, Life Skills Building and Entrepreneurship Development. It operates in Osun state Nigeria and has been operating since 2014. Treasure Jars currently engages over 20 volunteers who represent either themselves or private organisations.

Some of their projects

• Sexuality Education and Life Skills Building workshops for secondary school students to develop their capacity to make informed decisions in life. Over 3,000 students have participated in this programme.
• Le Rendezvous…MEET, NETWORK, SHARE, a business networking event for entrepreneurs that provides a platform for networking, information and experience sharing and exchanging contacts. Over 600 people have participated in the 10 editions held so far.
• A two-batch entrepreneurship training and mentoring project funded by the United States Department of State to enhance the knowledge and skills of 60 youth between 18 and 35 years living in Osogbo, Osun State in entrepreneurship and business development required to start and sustain a business.
• Le Rendezvous Entrepreneurs’ Showcase and Family Fun Day, a first-of-its-kind entrepreneurs’ showcase in Osun State to showcase and promote visibility of products and services of entrepreneurs in the state. 36 exhibitors participated in the event with numerous visitors.
• Project Boys to Men, a male involvement and life and leadership skills development programme for teenage boys aimed at positively shaping their mindset and grooming them for a purposeful and responsible life. Nearly 500 boys have benefited from this programme.

Key challenges                                            

Challenges experienced have centered on engaging human resource for daily operations at affordable costs and fundraising for project implementation and sustainability.

Treasure Jars’ successes

Treasure Jars views success more as the impact of our various projects on the lives of participants rather than project outputs. Development is a process therefore, the work continues.

Measuring in terms of outputs, nearly 4,500 individuals have benefited from our projects/ programmes; we organized the first-of-its-kind entrepreneurs’ showcase in Osun State, we organized a two-batch entrepreneurship training and mentoring programme funded by the US Consulate, Lagos (United States Department of State), the implementation of ‘Project Boys to Men’ in some secondary schools in the state, and so on.

Impact on Youth

Treasure Jars has had the following impact:

• Built capacity for informed decisions in individual lives and businesses among students and young adults;
• Increased clientele base, network and patronage for entrepreneurs as a result of participating in our various entrepreneurship-related programmes;
• Encourage volunteer participation to drive projects which have provided an avenue for professionals (young and old) to voluntarily engage and impact their community through their skills, time and other resources for which we are ever grateful.
• Successful partnership with some secondary schools for project implementation.

Recently Completed Project

A 5-day Teens’ Bootcamp that took place on Monday, 30th July to Friday, 3rd August, 2018 which included various capacity building sessions, team building activities, vocational training and networking. Some of the topics were centred around values, self-esteem, handling peer pressure, Information and Communication Technology, entrepreneurship and financial literacy and lots more.

Funding Path

Through donations from individuals and corporate organizations, one successful grant so far from the US Consulate, Lagos and personal funds.

Continuity and sustainability plans

• Research and incorporate a social enterprise model
• Continuous engagement of volunteer resource persons
• Foster ownership of projects among target audiences
• Continuously adopt various fundraising strategies.

Plans for the next 5 years

To reach out and focus more on issues around the development and health of adolescents.

Thanks Tosin for talking to Desert Bloom. We appreciate your time and we wish Treasure Jars more successes.

For more information on Treasure Jar Youth Centre or to contact Tosin, please send an email to info@desertbloomadvisory.com