On Sunday, 7th July, the Boys Without Borders University of Ibadan Campus Network inducted new members into the organisation at the Social Sciences Leather Lounge.
The 4-year-old boy-child organisation founded by John Dare Okafor and Solomon Idowu has, since inception, created awareness on the boy-child and the need to pay attention to his concerns.
The induction and onboarding session scheduled to hold start at 4pm, according to the emails sent to the selected applicants, started at 4:15pm with the co-team lead for the Finance Team, Caroline Babalola, introducing herself as the host. Attendees introduced themselves in turn, saying their names, faculty/department, and fun facts about them.
After introductions, the host introduced a networking session called ‘speed dating’ where attendees were paired up to hold conversations within 5 minutes and questions were asked at random from the pairs. Afterwards, the team leads for the 5 different teams – Content and Development Team, Creative Team, Finance Team, Feedback Team, Logistics Team – introduced their respective teams to the inductees.
Esther Adewusi, co-campus director of BWBxUI, kickstarted the actual onboarding session with an introduction to the organisation’s structure. She spoke about the founding members, mother organisation, and campus networks. She extended her session to the orientation of the essence of BWB, campus outreaches, visitations to schools, programs, common questions asked, and how volunteers can enlighten people. Kawthar Abdulmojeed, the other co-campus director, continued from where Esther stopped, highlighting the responsibilities of every BWB member. She talked about active participation, advocacy, dues, benefits of membership, border synergies, etc.
The onboarding session ended with orientation on sensitive topics beyond the scope of the organisation, words to use and words not to use on outreaches. Afterwards, the creed of the organisation was read by the inductees, marking their official welcome into BWBxUI. They were thereafter split into different teams.
Following that, Miracle Okeke, the Finance Team co-lead anchored a discussion on ‘The Disparities in the Celebration of Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day’. Old and new members contributed to the conversation and different points of views were welcomed. This discussion ended at 6:55pm. A rant session followed immediately after while refreshments were shared. A membership contest was the last agenda in the meeting. Teams contested against each other by answering questions asked by the anchor, Caroline.
Speaking with UIMSA Press, some inductees; Donald in 200-Level IPE, said, ‘Well, the experience is quite new for me. I’ve not synced well enough with the other members, so the chatty audience is not fun yet. But overall, I’m happy to be a part of this.’ Henry Nzediegwu in 300-level Pharmacy remarked, ‘I think it was really chill, I didn’t expect it to be this colorful, but it was a lot more. I love the idea of sub-teams and it was dope.’
The induction and onboarding session ended at 7:24pm with the Logistics Team winning the contest. Pictures were taken and light conversations followed.
Peter Adeyemo.