Holiday mornings in Lagos are usually for sleep, football, and screens. This August, more than 200 adolescents traded a few of those hours for a mat in the shade, a circle of familiar faces, and a coach wearing yellow who asked them a question nobody had asked in a while: how are you, really?
A Camp That Starts With a Circle
The SKILLZ Holiday Camp 2026 brought boys from across our partner communities into an open week of sessions built on the same model as our school programmes — play first, talk second, learn throughout. Every morning began on the mat, with check-ins and a game that broke the ice faster than any introduction could.
What the Camp Covered
- Mental health: naming emotions, managing stress, and knowing when and where to ask for help
- Sexual and reproductive health: accurate information, consent, and respect for one another
- Life skills: decision-making, communication, goal-setting, and resisting peer pressure
- Football and games: teamwork, discipline, and a lot of very competitive drills
Coaches in Yellow
Our SKILLZ Coaches carried the week. Each of them came through the same training that has powered our programmes for fifteen years: how to build trust quickly, how to answer a hard question honestly, and how to notice the young person who is quiet at the edge of the circle. Many of them grew up in the same neighbourhoods as the boys they now lead.
More Than a Holiday Programme
By the final day, the mats were still rolled out, but the conversations had moved on. Boys who arrived shy were leading games. Questions that were whispered on Monday were asked out loud by Friday. And every participant went home knowing where to find a counsellor, a mentor, or a coach if they ever needed one — during the holidays and after them.
Thank You
Thank you to our coaches, volunteers, parents, and community partners who made the camp possible, and to every young person who gave up a lie-in to show up. See you at the next one. 💛⚽
In the News
- Beyond the Classroom: How YEDI is helping teens navigate health, life and growing up (Health Life Science Plus)
- YEDI holiday camp equips teens with life skills, HIV knowledge, financial literacy (Vanguard)
