COVID-19= CDS: THE AMELIORATING AND THE HARSH EFFECTS ON YOUTHS

Following the eruption of the novel coronavirus pandemic which is taking a toll on the world with millions of people being affected, businesses, government and non-governmental agencies, banks and religious worship centres around the globe have been forced to go under lock and key. The remains of the loss are yet to be recorded even as the National Youth Service Corps recounts how the pandemic has impacted the scheme. The scheme which is an agency for national development and integration has not been vindicated amongst organisations badly hit by the pandemic.

 

With its first appearance in Wuhan, China in 2019, the airborne coronavirus disease has spread wildly to the Europe, Asia, Australia and down to Africa; causing a drastic change in human interpersonal relationships,social, economic, political and educational operations. Covid-19 is one of the greatest pandemic that has affected the world after the 1918 influenza pandemic.

 

Just like the Ebola virus which disrupted the NYSC activities some years back, on the 18th of March, 2020, barely two weeks into the commencement of the orientation exercise the management of the scheme suspended again the orientation exercise for the 2020 Batch "A" stream one corps members. This has caused a major standstill even as another programme of the scheme suffers a major setback: The Community Development Service (CDS).

 

During the mandatory one year service, corps members are expected to co-habit with the host communities and facilitate development alongside the execution of projects within the community. This activity of the scheme is called the Community Development Service or CDS for short. Through the CDS, corps members work with the local communities to promote self-reliance by executing projects and programmes that will positively impact the host community. However, with the outbreak of covid-19, the suspension of activities throughout the nation has caused this activity to suffer a setback.

 

Community Development Service (CDS), one of the four cardinal programmes of the NYSC has since inception been contributing immensely in the social, political and economic transformation of the nation. In times of disease outbreaks, corps members from the Medical and Health Service Group take to the communities to sensitize the public about the disease and possible preventive measures. Due to the nature of the coronavirus pandemic and the need for physical distancing, such activity has been affected.

 

The Sports CDS group which creates avenue for recreation and healthy rivalry among corps members and the community, arouse the consciousness of healthy and purposeful lifestyles through involvement in one form of physical activity, has also been affected since it's activities will involve physical contacts. Also, the group's objective of identifying talents among corps members has been truncated by the unfortunate emergence of covid-19. Youths who would have been discovered and promoted through the scheme may have lost the opportunity even as time speeds past and their service year begins to wind down.

 

Community Development Service meetings have long been put on hold! These meetings, asides other unofficial meetings, are where corps members get to gather physically to brainstorm, develop ideas, share new knowledge, meet new friends and develop capacity for the next phase of life. CDS meetings are where young leaders are built, corps members are able to blend and in most cases interrelate and end up marrying one another (which is the aim of the scheme). With the limitations imposed by the pandemic, however, physical gatherings have been suspended and the sacrosanct benefits of the CDS meetings dashed away.

                

Unfortunately, the 2019 Batch "B" stream one and two who were supposed to physically induct the 2020 Batch "A" as to the nitty-gritty of CDS, have been handicapped by the lockdown and sudden announcement of their passing out. The responsibility hereby lies on the amateur Batch "Cs" who themselves are yet to grasp the idea of how Community Development Service works. It hereby behoves on the management to re-orientate these newbies.

 

How about corps members with the Education Development Group whose main objective is to enhance the education stand of the host community? With schools been shut without clear resumption date, the activities of this CDS group are laying in the incubator awaiting implementation.

                                            

Finally, as the pandemic lingers on and activities around the country yet to fully commence operations, time, which has forever been an enemy of man keeps flying with tripled velocity. Consequently, corps members' days are numbered with the scheme and timely ideas that would have been implemented by these corps members which would have effected positive changes, will have to be put on hold for God-knows-when.

 

Jacob Caleb Christopher

OS/19C/0492