Founded in 2007, New Era Educational and Charitable Foundation fosters youth leadership development that promotes pluralism and rejects corruption. We build cross-cultural teams of young women and men with skills to emerge from dysfunctional families, and for some, drug-influenced lives on the streets, to become peer-leaders and agents of peace capable of helping themselves, of shaping a positive and sustainable society that rejects violence, and who insist on communicating excellence and unbridled compassion for all. We work with the youth to develop: 1) a sense of belonging to a common and interconnected humanity; 2) dignity for all people; 3) dedication to preserving the natural environment; and 4) a strong social service ethic.  New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and is Winner of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Youth Solidarity Fund (YSF).

New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation offers inclusive and holistic examples of education that prioritize experiential learning, cross-cultural dialogue, and a global ethic of peace and social justice. The organisation actively addresses and works on the issues of education, peace and conflict mediation, health, youth capacity building, and leadership development.

Major achievements

Since 2007, New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation, with support from several donors and partners, has to successfully designed and implemented several projects in Nigeria. Some of these project are still ongoing, namely:

• Building Youth Capacity for Peace and Good Governance in Nigeria with grants from the UNAOC and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (July 2013 to January 2015).  In 2013, with support from the UNAOC Youth Solidarity Fund, we successfully conducted a 6-month “Youth Capacity Building Project”, during which we trained 20 Christian and Muslim teachers from 10 Secondary Schools in Jos, 20 youth, 20 community leaders and 10 peer educators on peace education, conflict transformation and advocacy and trained peer educators, formed 10 Peace Education Clubs in 10 high schools in Plateau State. We also developed community partnerships through meetings with senior government officials and community leaders, produced and distributed 700 advocacy packages, conducted dialogue circles for 50 religiously diverse youth, aired 20 peace and public education messages on Plateau Radio and Television and also signed MOU with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), where we provided basic Computer Skills training, including peace education and Community Policing Skills to Officers and Men of the Rantya, Jos Police Division.
• International Conferences on Youth and Interfaith Dialogue. These conferences have been held every October since 2009. The International Conference on Youth and Interfaith Dialogue gathers women and men, young adults, including representatives of CSOs and faith-based groups in Nigeria and worldwide. They heal face-to-face with tools of mutual discovery and dignity, while rejecting violence and insisting on human engagement to build their common future. They are applying new tools of communication and forgiveness to take back home to their schools, communities, and nations. Through this Conference, we host religious leaders, scholars and Youth together, to foster intercultural dialogue and interfaith and to stimulate creative thinking, knowledge sharing and to provide a common platform for education and inclusion. Together, they investigate the different ways in which the resources of the world’s faiths, religious traditions and spiritual identities shape and inform social engagement and interaction. The Conference helps spiritually-based individuals and communities to heal wounds, end wars, and think “whole.”   This engaged, communicative next-generation of participatory citizenry is practicing faith-inspired, people-and-planet decision-making that results in social, economic, cultural, and spiritual prosperity for all, excluding no one.
• Youth Leadership and Governance Training. Our Leadership and Governance Program seeks to catalyze the emergence of a new generation of youth leaders who will participate effectively in forging a strong democratic, people-centred development and sustainable economic emancipation in Nigeria. Major highlights of our Leadership and Governance Program include: entrepreneurial and financial management training; educational seminars on democracy and good governance, health, gender issues, human rights, citizenship and social responsibilities and a mentoring program that connects established and emerging youth leaders. New Era Educational and Charitable Support Foundation has successfully conducted the Youth Leadership Institute since 2011 for over 500 undergraduates selected from 25 Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in towns and cities across Nigeria.
• One of our strongest national and global impacts is from our 2012 how-to film, “DIALOGUE IN NIGERIA: Muslims and Christians Creating Their Future”.  In the first 2012 year over 3,000 DVDs were requested from every continent by citizens in 570 cities of 70 nations, 20 of these in Africa. This documentary gives voices and faces to 200 courageous Muslims and Christians – diverse young women and men – who we united successfully in Jos, central Nigeria. Refusing to be enemies, they were together during days and evenings of our 2010 International Conference on Youth and Interfaith Dialogue. They were tense yet excited to finally cross lines of religion, economics, tribe, and gender to transcend the status quo and discover empathy for each other’s personal life experiences. Together they realized that “an enemy is one whose story we have not heard,” while listening-to-learn and thus dignifying themselves and the “others.” Face to face and in small circles, they began with ice-breakers and continued in depth to discover one another’s equal humanity – fear, grief, needs, hopes, and concrete plans for a shared future. These determined young Nigerians illustrated how others worldwide can successfully connect and communicate to create authentic community. Details are available at:  http://traubman.igc.org/vidnigeria.htm and also https://www.newerasupportfoundation.org/exploring-faiths  This annual International Conference on Youth and Interfaith Dialogue has inspired the annual National Youth Media Summit, and disseminated worldwide nearly 6,000 DVDs of its instructive, award-winning film, DIALOGUE IN NIGERIA: Muslims & Christians Creating Their Future. Others already replicate its practices in Nigeria, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, and beyond Africa.