An employee of Goldlink Insurance Plc, Miss Onyeka Adigwe, who was also the 2012 Miss Insurance, has emphasised the need to develop and empower youths in the country.
A statement from Goldlink Insurance on Friday quoted her as saying this during a programme at CMS Grammar School, Bariga, Lagos, while making a presentation on her final pet project, with the theme, "Youth empowerment: Functional education and the dangers of drug abuse."
According to the statement, Adigwe visited secondary schools with her team, which comprised officials of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, educationists and insurance practitioners.
To develop the youths, the statement said that the team held series of interactive sessions with the students on various issues contributing to failure in their academics, dangers of drug abuse as well as benefits of insurance as a profession and a way of life.
The purpose, it added, was to help to build their immunity against negative influences.
Miss Insurance stated that her pet project was instigated by her passion to see students focus more on their education and disallow distraction from peer pressure and social vices depriving them of the opportunity to build a future beneficial to them and the country.
According to her, she focused on the secondary school students because they were more prone to negative influences that could jeopardise their future as well as that of the nation; and also to bring about veritable change among the upcoming leaders of the future.
In the statement, she noted that such enlightenment should not be left to the government alone; hence she sourced for support from insurance companies to join hands in combating drug abuse, which was a major menace in the society.
In the course of her project, Miss Insurance engaged the students in an inter-school essay competition titled, "Benefits of insurance to a Nigerian child," which she did to entrench the gospel of insurance in them and to serve as a platform of attracting them into the profession.
With this, the students were able to carry out a research on insurance and its significance to individuals, families and nations.
According to the statement, students and school-representatives were awarded prizes, and plaques for their participation in the essay competition.
The winner of the essay-writing competition took a HP laptop while his school took a HP desktop computer. The second position took a mini laptop and her school, three-in-one scanner and a white board. The third position won a digital camera and a cash of N20,000.00, while his school took a water dispenser.
