Hi @NoQualms1, I use the Nasopure Baby Comfy Nose and it's really good, here is their website https://www.babycomfycare.com/product/baby-comfy-nose-nasal-aspirator/

I got it from HealthPlus, about 4k something, can't remember the exact price. I also used a humidifier which also seemed to help.

Congrats @sayoberry

NoQualms1:
@cancerlib, it's normal. they poop a lot at that age. Don't worry, you will still be the one to complain that baby has not pooped for days later.

@ hajarahbadmus, I use avent Phillips manual pump. Got it for N8,500.

@new mums, congrats. I know Sayoberry from pregnancy thread. I'm so glad to know you've delivered. Welcome to the vigilante club.

Mamas, where can I get mucus extractor in Lagos? My baby has been battling with catarrh for more than a month, the medicine doc gave us didn't work.

Also, how will one know a baby that will become Dada (have natural dreadlocks)? Thanks.

Hi @Onelovetayz, I will send you an email soon.

Onelovetayz:
Hi Genomi,
I am a Computer Science graduate and I would like to partner with you in any way you know I can be of help just let me know.
Please, I am not asking for money from you.
tayolumide@gmail.com

Hi @Onozztins, is is that you got an error message? If so please what was it?

Onozztins:
@Genomi..I tried leaving my info on the comment box but it wasnt possible

Hi @Seun

Skills On The House is an initiative I started with the aim of sponsoring a number of young Nigerians every month to attend useful courses. This is my own way of giving back to Nigeria. I believe in the power of combining technology with continuous learning as a way to help people achieve their business and/or career goals.

Every week, I will personally sponsor at least 1 beneficiary to receive a free course from the list of available at www.skillsonthehouse.com/get-a-free-course/

The courses to be given out this week are:

1) Online Digital & Social Media Marketing Diploma

2) Starting an Online Business

A fellow nairalander advised me to reach out to get your thoughts and advice on how to get the information out there. I hope you can give a few minutes of your time to check it out. Thank you.

Ok then, I will start working on it..

YES PLEASE, it would be great if you can join in and mentor as well.

I will give you all the necessary details in due time.

jaybee3:

You’re very much welcome

1-2-1 assistance is good but for how long since it will have a knock on effect on time resource
I like the idea of group events as people will be able to share experience and knowledge as well as network at these events. That’s certainly a plus
I personally think you had hit a home run if you can get people (friends/colleagues) to mentor the applicants. I’m happy to sign up for the mentorship IF needed

Wow! Thanks and thanks again - you have definitely put a lot of thought into this. I would absolutely love to give career advice and help with CV's and interview preparation as well, in fact that was one of the things I mentioned in my initial post on this thread.

What do you think would be the best way to go about this? Giving one-to-one assistance over the net or organising small events where I can meet up with say 10 people at a time? I may also be able to get some experienced friends and colleagues to help out...

I will also start looking for and giving out training that will specifically help people become more employable..as usual, I will provide the house feedback on my progress

jaybee3:

I knew it was never going to be an easy feat hence why I wanted you to re-evaluate your approach in reaching the desired outcome.
Addressing the availability and accessibility of training is very good since there is a visible gap that ought to be closed via initiatives such as yours. My worry is that it wouldn’t necessarily go far enough in reaching your initial goals except you can link the vocational training with the other plans you’re currently designing

Success with these sort of initiatives won’t necessarily be complete without the recipients gainfully employed and being productive.

How about you include career advice and coaching on how to write CV’s as well as interview techniques into your end-to-end process?

You can also focus the training on skills that can bridge employment Gap in Nigeria

Well done though. I like your positive spirit/energy.. We definitely need more people like you to move this nation forward

Oh yes, sorry I forgot to address that question - the honest truth is that measuring the success of the model in terms of direct impact on careers and businesses will not be an easy feat because it will largely boil down to the individual beneficiaries. What I mean by this is that it is left to beneficiaries to put the knowledge they gain into good use - there is no direct way for me to measure this.

What I can actually measure (for now) is the number of people who have received training through the initiative - I will also keep open lines of communication with beneficiaries and follow their progress as much as I can. In less than one week of the site going live, I have already connected with a few young people asking for my thoughts on their businesses, while others have just applied to get a free course - there is a key difference between these 2 groups of people. I will definitely be keeping up with the people who reach out to me directly and hopefully even play more of a role in helping them achieve their goals. And as things pick up and get bigger, more people will come on board to help out as well as bring their own ideas on board as to how to make things better.

If you have any other ideas you think I should be considering, please feel free to tell me. Thanks a lot for your help, I appreciate it.

jaybee3:

How would you measure success of the model?

Hi @Ademat7, thanks for your contribution. I definitely see what you are saying, NYSC people are one of the main target audiences for this initiative...do you have any suggestions on how I can spread the word to a large group of corpers? Your advice will be appreciated.

Ademat7:
@Genomi since u won't be giving out quack idea,I suggest u look toward NYSC member cos what u intend giving is a modern-skill u knw what I mean that require some level of prior education by d beneficiary,if u want to target less privilege it will have been vocational skill but I understand d cadre u occupy in academic world hence ur choice skill

Hi @jaybee3, thanks for your contribution. I am definitely not in a position to implement (2) and (3) - that is one of I will leave for the banks

As for (1), my dream is to set us FREE E-Learning centres around the country where young people can walk in, book a slot of 1 or 2 hours and have access to state of the art technology and e-learning facilities that will cover business, professional and vocational skills.

I strongly believe in the power of combining technology with continuous learning and development as a way to help people achieve their business and/or career goals. Technology has changed EVERYTHING. Like I said earlier, I decided to put up www.skillsonthehouse.com all by myself and I was able to achieve that aim simply by going online and taking a 6-hour wordpress course which even gave me the flexibility to spread out my learning over a week. Just imagine being able to login to a portal (if you can afford a computer and internet access) or walk into a building (if you don't have your own computer) and walk out armed with knowledge and skills that can help you perform better at your job or even start your own business. That is my dream for Nigeria

Having said that, I actually got an inquiry from a young entrepreneur after launching the site - he wanted to know if I will also give out loans. I won't do that but I know the owner of a micro-finance bank and I've started talking to him to see what can be done for young Nigerians who are just starting out - again, I will keep the house posted on my progress and hopefully we will be able to work something out that will allow people access to soft loans without having to fulfill a mountain of requirements.

jaybee3:
Nice initiative but how would you measure success?
It's always good to empower people with knowledge but it's almost useless when there reallyisn't an enabling environment.
I personally think you could set acheive a better result with the following business model:
1) Set up a vocational training facilities and have applicants enrol on them free of charge
2) Provide soft loans and incentives for people with established small business
3) Provide financial buffers for those struggling to actualise their ideas

hi @usgee, nice to hear from you again. Your contributions is definitely not 'very little' and is a most welcome addition. I will be selecting the 1st set of beneficiaries this Friday. I will send you a DM so that we can communicate better via e-mail.

usgee:
@Genomi
Sorry for the late reply and thanks for keeping the faith.
The beneficiary of the broadband bonus is just whoever you recommend really. It is a very little contribution and yes it is very possible to increase the number as time goes.
Glad that you have rolled out the plan. Please keep the focus, whatever you can do now will help someone who will appreciate.

Thanks house.

2 courses being given out this week:

(1) Online Digital & Social Media Marketing Diploma

(2) Starting an Online Business

Beneficiaries will be chosen and contacted on Friday 27th March 2015.

www.skillsonthehouse.com

Skills On The House is an initiative I started with the aim of sponsoring a number of young Nigerians every month to attend useful courses. This is my own way of giving back to Nigeria.

I believe in the power of combining technology with continuous learning as a way to help people achieve their business and/or career goals.

Every week, I will personally sponsor at least 1 beneficiary to receive a free course from the list of available at www.skillsonthehouse.com/get-a-free-course/

The courses to be given out this week are:

1) Online Digital & Social Media Marketing Diploma

2) Starting an Online Business

For a chance to get a free course, simply visit the site and drop a comment with your details. Beneficiaries will be chosen and contacted on Friday 27th March 2015.

I purchased these courses from DealDey and I'm discussing with other training providers to expand the list of courses available.

I really hope to make a change through this initiative.

Skills On The House is an initiative I started with the aim of sponsoring a number of young Nigerians every month to attend useful courses. This is my own way of giving back to Nigeria.

I believe in the power of combining technology with continuous learning as a way to help people achieve their business and/or career goals.

Every week, I will personally sponsor at least 1 beneficiary to receive a free course from the list of available at www.skillsonthehouse.com/get-a-free-course/

The courses to be given out this week are:
1) Online Digital & Social Media Marketing Diploma

2) Starting an Online Business

For a chance to get a free course, simply visit the site and drop a comment with your details. I purchased these courses from DealDey and I'm discussing with other training providers to expand the list of courses available.

I really hope to make a change through this initiative. You can also contact me at www.skillsonthehouse.com/contact-page/, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks @Onozztins - if you are interested in any of the courses, please drop a comment with your e-mail, facebook, twitter or instagram ID at www.skillsonthehouse.com/get-a-free-course/

Onozztins:
Just subscribed

Skills On The House is an initiative I started with the aim of sponsoring a number of young Nigerians every month to attend useful courses. This is my own way of giving back to Nigeria.

I believe in the power of combining technology with continuous learning as a way to help people achieve their business and/or career goals.

Every week, I will personally sponsor at least 1 beneficiary to receive a free course from the list of available at www.skillsonthehouse.com/get-a-free-course/

The courses to be given out this week are:
1) Online Digital & Social Media Marketing Diploma

2) Starting an Online Business

For a chance to get a free course, simply visit the site and drop a comment with your details. I purchased these courses from DealDey and I'm discussing with other training providers to expand the list of courses available.

I really hope to make a change through this initiative. You can also contact me at www.skillsonthehouse.com/contact-page/, I would love to hear from you.

[quote author=eninaija post=31833897]
Wow! Keep up d good work, I am proud of you.

Nice name, you av a creative mind.

Thanks very much, but I must confess that I got help coming up with that name

Thanks @pinbar

Hello house, how has everyone been? I'm back again with an update - I'm please to announce that the site is now live at www.skillsonthehouse.com. Also on twitter @SOTHNigeria

Skills On The House as in Free skills (think Drinks on the house, LOL)

The great thing about this is that I put the website up by myself - I used wordpress which I knew absolutely NOTHING about before I started this initiative. So I just went online, searched for a cheap online wordpress course, paid and did the course. It lasted 6 hours and I was able to complete it in about a week. It took that long because of my seriously tight schedule and I was only able to do about an hour a day.

After completing the course, I was actually able to get the site up and running with very little hassle (thanks also to google for helping me find answers whenever I got stuck) - I will be giving out that wordpress course very soon as well. Anyone can pick it up and build a business around designing websites

You can head to the site to drop a comment to enter for a chance to get a free course. I will be giving out 2 courses to 2 people next week:

1) Online Digital & Social Media Marketing Diploma

2) Starting an Online Business

A few friends have expressed interest in giving money towards the initiative so that they can also help sponsor people to learn new skills. I have refused to collect for now because I want to build a solid process around this first and ensure transparency - truth is I don't want to collect anyone's cash because I want to be fully accountable and don't want anyone to think their funds are being diverted elsewhere. So right now, I'm working on developing a process around how other Nigerians can get involved and give whatever they have.

As usual, your ideas are welcome. Thanks soo much for the encouragement and support soo far. God Bless you all.

Hello @usgee, thanks very much for taking your time to reply. I have bought a domain and I'm currently working on putting up a site. I have also been discussing with course / training providers and things are moving along well. With regards to your concerns in no. 7, (Please, please, make sure you do everything to protect the data and personal information of the particaipants. Good that you schooled
in the UK, you should know this is very important if you are to retain trust. You should be able to show this prove to the participants
because it is not worth it, if they need help only to loose their live-long projects or inventions)[b][/b]
this will not be an issue as I will only be asking for minimal information in the entry form which people can submit to get a free course. This makes it much easier and straightforward to manage the whole process, and like you said, I wouldn't want anything to happen to anyone's hard work.

It's very kind of you to also offer to give internet to a winner, but the issue now is that there will most certainly be more than 1 beneficiary every month, I'm actually targeting 6 to 8 each month - the more people that can be reached, the better. So I've been wondering how the person to get the free internet would be selected. Please let me know if you ave any ideas.

I will continue to post summaries of my progress. A big thank you again to all who have given advise.

usgee:
I have been tinkering with this idea for some time and I naturally turned to this forum as I keep up with things back home through it.

LOL. I don't work for dealdey o, I'm just trying to do my own little thing

Ricmayak1:
Nice advert by dealdey. If otherwise, well done!

Tanks @doseni, and a big Amen to your prayer. I've decided not to give the funds out directly but pay for the courses myself instead. This will make things a lot easier and faster.

doseni:
Hello, @ OP, God bless you for your gestures, if only more people can do such, it would go a long way. I would advice that anyone that is interested in benefiting, let them send in a verifiable business plan on how they intend to utilize the funds. They must be willing to defend their business plan. It would be very sad if the real people that needs the funds don't end up benefiting from this gesture.
Once again, I want to pray that God would continue to bless the OP and meet you at the point of your need.

Hi @youngestpr, thanks for your post. I know what you mean about small businesses, some of them do not fully appreciate the impact automation and technology in general can have on their businesses. I have decided not to give out cash because I can't be sure that it will be used for the intended purpose. I will be partnering with course providers instead and hopefully make it a weekly affair. For instance if I can get courses for N2,500 each, then I can pay for 2 people per week as this still comes to 20k per month.

youngestpr:
This is a very good initiative, I bet a lot of Nigerians have something like this in mind but have just kept quiet because of the 'thinking' of how possible it will be to implement. I am a software developer and I have also been thinking of how to go about helping small businesses improve their business process with simple software developments (but I have not seen any business that is really looking for that). My suggestion is that you might have to conduct a physical (or even a one-on-one) interview to be sure your fund is being utilised properly. However, this may mean making the project quarterly with a higher amount as suggested earlier so that it will really worth the effort.

Kind Regards.

Hello @Enterpro - for now I'm going solo, though a good friend has been brainstorming with me and will also be helping get the site up and running. I've been thinking about the possibility of carrying other people along as I know there may be other people interested in helping as well. I will start thinking of how to make that work - maybe people like yourself can pay directly to any of the course providers to sponsor some courses as well and we will simply increase the number of courses to be given out depending on the number of people you wish to sponsor.

EnterPRO:




nice initiative.

do you intend to go solo or team up with more supporters?

hope to chip in the nearest future.

Hello house, how is everyone? Thanks soo much for all the comments and suggestions. Well the latest update is that I have started reaching out to course providers to see if I can partner with them for the provision of heavily discounted courses - the cheaper the courses, the more people that can benefit. I've also started working on a blog where the courses will be given out - I also intend to blog about my career experiences in general.

I will continue to update everyone and hopefully I will be posting a link to the blog in the near future.

Thanks yinkeys. This is why I will pay for a course / seminar / training / learning material rather than giving out the cash.

yinkeys:
This is a good way to go about it ma. But if I may add, how do intend scanning out the dubious from genuine people. It won't take much to write a good proposal to decieve/convince you. Nigerians are really smart peeps & can do anything just for money

Hi @beabea5, unfortunately I have not even started yet as I plan to do so next Month by God's Grace if everything is in place. But I won't be giving out cash, rather I will be paying for training, seminars, materials etc that can be beneficial towards building a business or career.

beabea5:
Thank you Op,am in need of this seriously,Life have been so difficult been a single mum,Ex has totally abandoned myself and his son...i am a graduate of Economics of second Class lower,i went for several interviews of recent went for jumia customer service but unfortunately i couldnt make it..Am planning on having a small shop where i can be selling petty things for survival especially for my little boy who will soon start school but no fund and people i spoke to about it are just mocking me...If you can be of assistance that means fortunes have finally smiled at me. Thanks.

Hmm thank you very much @pinbar, I will definitely be going with your suggestion of not monetising it but instead paying for the training. I will also talk to one or 2 people to build on the idea. I will keep reporting on my progress.

pinbar:
Nice one and i m going to be short about this....
1. For your dream to be sustainable, u need a structure i.e putting a team of intellects together to map out a modus operandi. it could be 2 man team.
2. Dont monetize it, since u are more inclined in IT and you believe so much in capacity building through trainings, seminars e.t.c pay for such trainings yourself as long as its within the budget and let your team follow up with the persons progress. That way, you will eliminate a lot of scams.

Thanks @jerrygome, that is one of my major concerns. I will figure something out. Meanwhile I'm a 'sister' not 'brother'

jerrygome:
Watch out for scam. Most stories you gonna hear gonna be fabricated ones. Not trying to dampen your zeal as we need more of your type in Naija. Thumbs up brother!

Thanks @iyisco2001, I appreciate your comment. It looks like I will definitely be setting up a website. Thanks very much and I will keep the house posted on my progress.

iyisco2001:
I really appreciate your desire to help young folks who are aspiring in there career, its cool. although I am also aspiring in my career, what my friends and I do is set up exams for young people(secondary skul) where we grew up, pay for there JAMB after there secondary education, advice them on the choice of career, and we are looking into paying tuitions soon, so I would say, set up a website or throw contests here on nairaland, essay, or letter of intentions, qualifications verified, courses to be paid for verified and cash disbursed. I hope this helps.
God bless ya hustle.

Hello house, please I need your help. Before I get into the details of my post, let me give a little background on myself.

I am a young Nigerian lady, been working in Lagos since 2008. I graduated from a top UK university with a 1st class in Computer Systems and Electronic Engineering in 2007. I have some work experience in the UK and have also been working as a Business / Systems Analyst in various companies since I moved back.

I have always tried to do my own bit to give back / help society and I particularly take interest in helping people / giving advice on how to build careers and recently business. I have decided now to give directly from my own pocket the sum of N20,000 a month to help someone / people in their journey to achieving their career / business goals. I currently work full time as a management consultant and will be taking from my salary to achieve this. I have decided to stop thinking and talking about contributing to Nigeria and actually start doing my own little bit. I would also like to help 1 or 2 people every month with job applications, CV writing and any other thing within my power (that I am knowledgeable about). One of my key strengths is process automation and the use of software to drive efficiency into the way businesses are run.

Entrepreneurship is really picking up in Nigeria (maybe due to the shortage of jobs) but I find that technology is not really being optimised in running these businesses - I'm really passionate about helping small businesses work better by using IT solutions - in fact this is at the heart of what I do at my 9-5 job.

I've been thinking that the money I give out can be used to maybe attend courses, training, seminars, purchase tools to help with business etc etc

The problem now is how should I go about this? I have the following concerns:
1. How do I put this information out there? I guess a thread like this is a good way to start

2. Can N20,000 really help anyone? I'm wondering if I should give N20,000 to 1 person a month or N10,000 each to 2 people or N5,000 to 4 people each month - please what do you think? I've noticed that there are some cheap courses (as low as N2,500) on sites like dealdey so I'm hoping this my small contribution can make a difference

3. How can I determine which application is genuine and which is not? I would really want the cash to be used for personal improvement geared towards career or Business growth

I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this. Thank you.
Please note that I intend to start doing this from March. Between now and then I am trying to focus on building the framework around how best to execute this. I won't be accepting CV's but I plan to create a simple webform with a few questions as mode of application. I will then review the responses and choose the beneficiaries each month.

Dear house, please note that I intend to start doing this from March. Between now and then I am trying to focus on building the framework around how best to execute this. I won't be accepting CV's but I plan to create a simple webform with a few questions as mode of application. I will then review the responses and choose the beneficiaries each month.