By Israel Adamu, Jos
Some members of the Gyel Traditional Council in Jos South Local Government of Plateau, have applauded the organisers of Jos Community Film Festival(JOCOFFEST), for the initiative.
Some of them, who spoke on Wednesday in Jos, said that the activity was a sound training window for the youths.
The chiefs expressed their appreciation when the JOCOFFEST team paid a courtesy visit to the traditional council to seek its involvement in the annual activity.
Our correspondent reports that JOCOFFEST is a roaming non-profit film festival that seeks to empower Plateau youths on all aspects of film production and creativity.
While receiving the team, Mr Nga Dangyang, the Da Gwom Rwei of Jos South, expressed gratitude to the organisers and lauded their exploits in other communities that hosted the activity.
“We are grateful you chose Gyel this year.
“This is a welcome idea to us; we want to thank the organisers for bringing this initiative to our community. It is only God that will reward you.
“You can see the number of youths gathered here today because they heard the JOCOFFEST team would be coming.
“They had indicated interest since the day they heard that the project is in the offing.
“So many people have been calling and asking; I want to say that we are so grateful because we are going to have actors, golfers and experts in other skills in the near future.
“The package they are bringing is full of a lot of things to take these children off the streets and other vices, and give them a better life.
“I believe many of them will become experts in many fields.
“In the traditional council, we support this initiative fully. We shall give you the maximum cooperation needed to succeed. We say a very big thank you and we appreciate you.”
Similarly, the acting Da Gwom of Sot Gyel, Da Joshua Pam, called on government to support JOCOFFEST in its activities as the initiative is helping to empower youths.
“Such venture can only be sustained through governments support,” he remarked.
Also, Mr Dung Bitrus, Chairman, Berom Youth Moulders, Gyel District chapter, and Mr Jonathan Dangyang, Secretary of the Jos South Traditional Council, expressed joy that the unemployed and out-of-School youths would have some means of livelihood.
Earlier, Prof. Eddie Ossai, Founder and Coordinator of JOCOFFEST, had said that the essence of the initiative was to take restive youths off the streets and give them a means of livelihood to ward off the temptation to resort to vices.
“Our main objective for establishing this venture is to empower our jobless and restive youths through creativity, and give them a means of expression through film production.
“We discovered that there are so many restless, idle minds in the state, so what we try to do is to engage them and give them something meaningful to do.
“We started this festival three years ago and have recorded tremendous success.
“We have done it in Tudun-Wada, Lamingo, Bokkos; last year we targeted 500 youths, but for Gyel, we are looking at about a hundred to ensure efficient drilling.
“We will engage them in various aspects of film production, golf trainings and other skills, essentially to help them sustain themselves.
“We are grateful to the community leaders of Gyel for the warm reception; this is an indication of their readiness for a better future for the youths and greater future for Jos South,” he said.
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