By Elizabeth Ikegima and Ayomide Oyinlola
Youth For Edo Reformation Movement (YERM), a youth-centred organisation that focuses on helping youths in Edo State maximise their potential, hosted its first ever clean-up day exercise on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
Vibrant and enthusiastic young volunteers, most of whom were students from the prestigious University of Benin, as well as recent graduates, graced the event with their presence.
The event commenced at exactly 9:00AM West African Time, as participants journeyed on the task of restoring cleanliness to their neighbourhood. This event, for many of them, would serve as a significant milestone for the organisation and a mark of a new era of activism among youths in Edo State.
One of the participants, Odianose Eghosa Jeremiah, a 400-level student of Microbiology, expressed his joy and sense of fulfilment in engaging in the exercise, “As students, we should try to involve ourselves in community services; it might be little, but you don’t know how far it can take you.”
Amidst the bustling marketplace, these young vibrant youths, through bus transitions, travelled from Oredo Local Government down to Oluku market, entering streets and markets to pick up dirt which had littered the environment. It even became more fun as many market women heralded in appreciation, their voices in the Benin Language, “Urhese oh, Urhese my children,” one of the market women shouted.
As the morning unfolded, the determination of the youths remained unwavering as they forged ahead to their final destination at Oluku Market. After which, they all sat for refreshment to regain strength lost during the task. The movement, according to many, would serve as a testament to the power of collective action and a demonstration of the transformative impact of grassroots initiatives.
Rita Apeji, a recent graduate from the University of Benin and the founder of YERM, in an interview with our reporter, expressed her gratitude to her team of volunteers for working tirelessly to ensure that the event was a success, despite the challenge of planning within a short timeframe. “The really short timeframe we had to plan all of it was the major challenge but having a team that works tirelessly completely changed everything,” she said.
Speaking further, she said, “Personally, I have always loved to be of value, in basic terms, to be useful to the people around me and the society at large. So coming up with this project wasn’t an easy task. I brought my team together, we did a little brainstorming, and it was clear that we had to do this. My passion for wanting to see a better society motivated me, and I can assure you we have more up our sleeves. YERM is definitely a movement to look out for, and that’s it.”