The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the PAS and in conjunction with
InspLIFT Trainers has organized a two days Young Leadership Training for 40 pupils of
senior secondary schools in Bauchi.

The training is specifically tailored towards developing leadership skills among youth and
strengthening their understanding of the fundamentals of development and human right,
creating a personal and social vision as well as leadership abilities.
During a brain storming session where the participants were split into five groups to discuss
and offer solutions to the following issues bedeviling our society, the issues discussed
are:-
• Education
• Social problems
• Security problems
• Politics
• Economic

Leadership and visionary examples were sighted using Late U.S. President Kennedy, Bill
Clinton, Nelson Mandela, China’s Chairman Mao, India’a Mahatma Ghandi and finally
Martin Luther King Jr. all of whom are visionary leaders that make a difference. This was
followed by a film show on “Eyes on the Price in Remembrance of MLK.
Participants were very happy with the program and have pleaded for the continuation of
such a good gesture.
Result: at the end of the event, participants have gained some leadership skills that will
help them in the pursuit of their various dream and aspirations. The same program will be
repeated for another 40 students the coming week therefore making the total beneficiaries
to 80 students.

Media: the program was covered by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

World Tuberculosis Day 2012

American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with PAS of the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria has today observed the World TB Day with an awareness creation program

World Tuberculosis Day is a worldwide event that aims to raise public awareness of tuberculosis and the efforts made to prevent and treat this disease. This event is held on March 24 each year and is promoted by organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO).

Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycrobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs. It is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the disease. WHO estimates that the largest number of new TB cases in 2005 occurred in south-east Asia, which accounted for 34 percent of incident cases globally. However, the estimated incidence rate in sub-Saharan Africa is nearly twice that of south-east Asia. During an interactive discussion, the resource person Dr. Balogun Israel Adekunle of the infectious Disease Hospital in Bauchi said that TB was the number 1 killer disease before it was discovered and still remains a major challenge despite the enormous awareness campaign. He enumerated some of the risk factors of TB to smoking and poverty. Although he says TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to
become infected. But one-third of the world’s population has latent TB, which means people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with disease and cannot transmit the disease. But luckily he said the disease is cureable and the treatment is free.

He urged the participants at the program to be peer educators and advise those that have a persisting cough of more than two weeks to go and have a sputum test as a preventive major.
Questions: some participants asked the Doctor some question about the possibility of contacting the disease through sneezing as well as wither one can get the disease from eating Cola nut of excessive coffee drinking? all of which the doctor clarify to some extent.

Reading (Catching them young)
Learning to read is an important skill every child must develop to be successful in school. Regardless of the subject matter taught, a child must be able to read and comprehend what they are reading. Good reading skills are the foundation for a proper education. These days instead of reading books, many children spend their time playing computer games or browsing the Internet. It is often difficult for parents to entice their children to read a book. Reading requires practice and developing excellent reading comprehension requires children to read books. In order for children to comprehend other subject matters, they must have good reading comprehension.

I t is in the light of the afore mentioned that the American Corner Bauchi host 21 JS1 students of Sunshine International Secondary School on a two hour reading session with a view to catching them young by inculcating the love of reading.

The students concentration was on scholastic for children where they read books such as Children Encyclopedia, National Geographic Atlas, United States of America (Enchantment of the World), the Statue of Liberty, scholastic Atlas of Weather and Ocean as well as the Lewis and Clark expedition etc.

The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the PAS has today the joint hands
with RTI/LEAD, the State Ministry of Water Resources, Rural & Water Sanitation and
other stake holders to celebrate the World Water Day 2012.
International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing
attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management
of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General
Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.
Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater and this year’s
theme is; Water & Food Security. The two hour celebration begins with goodwill message
by the representative of UNICEF ‘D’ Field office and was followed by a welcome address
by the Commissioner of Water Resources. After observing these protocols, a paper
presentation titled “Advocating for multiple use water services approach as pancea to
unemployment, hunger and increasing poverty in Bauchi State was delivered by Engr.
Yusuf Mailadi of RTI/LEAD.

Many of the participants are of the opinion that the government needs to redouble their
effort in the provision of drinking water to the populace because lack of portable water
contributed a lot to the issue of poor sanitation which causes death from cholera and
other related illness.

During the occasion, the American Corner stand distrubutes copies of World Water Day
brochure to all participants courtesy of; http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/downloads/
WWD2012_BROCHURE_EN.pdf. It was also an oppurtunity for the Corner to showcase it’s
service & social activities through the display of American Corner FAQ sheet and copies cross
Roads.

The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the PAS has today the 21st of March
commemorate The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as
observed annually with a documentary series on the civil rights movement that brilliantly
illuminates the struggle for racial equality and social justice . Proclaiming the Day in
1966, the UN General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its
efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

The documentary is titled “Awakenings and Fighting Back” a potion from the six hour
award winning Eyes on the Prize which is a compelling human stories that seeks to
engage viewers into discussing the landmark event that took place far back 1954-1962.

The whole audience 28 were very surprised as well as emotional to the kind of struggle
they saw on the video and thus their perspective on the struggle for freedom was changed
especially the idea of peaceful and non violence protest taking into consideration the bus
boycott. They unanimously appreciate the effort of these brave men/women on their effort
and fight for racial equality of which we all enjoy today.

International Women's Day Celebration 2012

Program Report:
Title: International Women’s Day Celebration Venue: American Corner Bauchi
Date: 8/3/2012 Time: 3:30-4:45pm Attendance: 40
The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy
has today joined the rest of the world to celebrate “International Women’s Day”.
This year’s celebration which is themed; Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty is
observed with speaker program, interactive session, introduction of Micro-Credit as well as
presentation of Desktop Computers to women beneficiaries under the ICT for development initiative
of the 1st lady of Bauchi State Hajiya Aisha Isa Yuguda.
After the welcome address and introduction of speakers at the event and subsequent welcome
speech by Her Excellency represented by her SSA, the program commenced with a paper
presentation titled “Education and Women Empowerment” by Hajiya Azumi Bako (National
Publicity Secretary) National Council of Women Societies. In her speech, she said that women
constitute half of the total population of the world and they perform an estimated 60 percent of
the worlds work force but own only 1 percent of world’s land and just 10% of the world’s income
yet she said they denied the right to education, intellectual obscurantism in the patriarch society
even though they are contributing to national development. While stressing that their work is
unrecognized and uncounted as a result of this, they lagged behind in all spheres of life, a situation
she said that had to be put to an end by educating them which is the most important means of
empowering women with knowledge, skills and self confidence necessary to participate fully in
the development process.

Her paper was followed by an introduction of Nasreen Micro-Credit. According to its Business
manager Nasir Ibrahim, the aim an objective of the credit scheme is to empower the woman
saying that accessing their credit need no collateral hence making it very easy.
Before the program came to an end, representative of Her Excellency Hajiya A’isha Isa Yuguda said
that they will partner with Nasreen Micro-Credit to empower more women. This was followed by
the presentation of certificate of training completion as well as presentation of 19 Desktop
Computers to members of Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) Bauchi
chapter by the representative of 1st lady and the Center Director of Prof. Iya Abubakar Community
Resource Center.

National Grammar Day 2012

The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the PAS has today the 5th of March commemorate the National Grammar Day with a lesson program for 25 students.
The lesson which include Reading, phrase match, listening gap fill, reading gap fill spelling and scrambled sentences. It was informed with a view to making the students speak well and write well while improving their grammar.
They also had time to search the internet for vocabulary extension as well as searching the net about National Grammar Day.
Media: the program was covered by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
Some Feed Back:
Sa’adatu Musa: I learn a lot about National Grammar Day and I also learned that it is not only english that can be honoured in grammar day, every language can be honoured. I also enjoy using the corner computer to search the internet.
Haruna Yahaya: I learned how to read and understand grammar and how to answer questions correctly, I also learn how to use Laptop Computer because this is my first day of using it. I will use what I learned today to improve my grammar and how to use them in writing, talking and giving a speech to a gathering.
Sumayya Ya’u Ibrahim:  I learned so many things today and I have enjoyed it although our english teacher use to teach such studies. I learned how to fill the gaps wisely and faster and I learned how to answer multiple choice questions wisely.
Grace Malachi: I learned that we should read our book and also to know our grammar very well so that we should have no problem speaking. Actually I really enjoyed this program because I understand many things about grammar, we also browse the internet to see more information about National Grammar Day.

Black History Month 2012

American Corner Bauchi Program Report
The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the PAS had today celebrated the Black
History month with a Book Display and Discussion of Harriet Tubman’s “Go Free or Die”.
Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland in about 1820. In 1848
Tubman decided to try and escape from her plantation. Her husband, John Tubman, refused
to go with her as he believed it was too dangerous. Her two brothers accompanied her but
later they became frightened and decided to return to the plantation.
The coordinator took time to give a small background of African American struggle for
freedom by sighting example of Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr.
and Rosa Parks.
Participant were so thrilled and amazed on how these great black men and women fought
tirelessly for the African American freedom as well as other rights like that to elect as well as
to be being elected taking into consideration the election of Barack Obama the first African
American to be elected to lead the United States as its president.
There were 13 participants in attendance.

Play Away View

Playaway Viewing Program
The American Corner Bauchi has today unveil it’s Playaway View, the first-ever, self-playing, allin-
one media player to five students of Harmony Secondary School Bauchi and their teacher. The
students were so excited and have enjoyed this state of the art gizmo. I am sure this will generate a
strong word of mouth information of the existence of the American Corner here in Bauchi, this
because of the fact that they visit the corner for the first time and I have extend my invitation to all
the school students who want to visit.

Date: 21^st January, 2012                 Venue: American Corner Bauchi

Event: Commemoration of MLK 2012 with Film show (Eyes on the prize No easy walk), book display, speech, Q&A  and Group Discussions           Audience: Academic Staff, Youth and the general public              

In Attendance: 37                     Time: 10:00am

The American Corner Bauchi in collaboration with the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria has today the 21^st of January 2012 plays host to an audience of 37 with a film show, book display, speech, Question and answers session that was followed by a group discussion all in commemoration of Martin Luther King’s Day 2012. This program provides an avenue for participants to discuss with the need to pursue all disagreements through dialogue and non violence movement.

The film Eyes on the Prize gave the audience an insight to how non violent movements in the United States plays a crucial role in addressing disputes between the Federal Government and the citizen in the 1960 in the area of segregation and other human right issues.

In his speech, Nwele James Obasi sighted and example using the recently call off strikes by labor organization as another non violent movement in which Nigerian’s protest the withdrawal of fuel subsidy by the federal government and was successful in bringing the price down, all these ideas were borrowed from the non violent movements founded by MLK he says.

During the event, some books and other related materials of MLK were displayed for the benefit of the participants. And during the group discussions, participants were very optimistic on the need to pursue justice through non violence and peaceful dialogue. At the end of the program, participants were given copies of MLK Infopack.

Media: the program was covered by the News Agency of Nigeria NAN

The program came to an end @ exactly 12:30pm with light refreshment.