Best practices and detailed guide
The NYSC orientation camp is the first of four (4) cardinal programs of the service year. It is fun-filled and presents corp members with a lot of opportunities. One is to explore their potentials and help them become a better person through various Group mental and physical training.
Corp members are also encouraged to practice some of the things they’ve learned whether in school or the orientation camp. For example, medical students might be enrolled in Red Cross and tasked with giving first aid treatment to any injured corp member on camp. This is aimed at honing their existing skill set or equipping them with new useful ones.
-
Basic CDS Groups
It is worthy of being noted that once you join some of these groups they’ll be your Community development Service (CDS) group after camp and this will increase your chance of being given a Primary Assignment in a developed city.
However, to get the most of the groups available on the camp you must be informed about the various groups available, their purpose and activities. That is what we’ll be looking into in this article.
Ready? Let’s proceed
There are various groups you can join in camp. However, the numbers of groups join able are not equally distributed across all camps. For example, there might be a Man o war group in camp A and not B. For this guide, we’ll be looking into the groups that are available in all camps across the nation. We’ll also be looking into the hidden benefits of joining these groups but before we dive in let’s look at the list of them all.
- List of Groups you can join in NYSC Orientation Camps
- Red Cross
- Cultural and Social Group (Band, Dance, Social & Drama Group)
- Sports Group
- On-Camp Broadcasting Service (OBS)
- Decoration group
- Red Cross
Red Cross group are group of officials and corp members that tends to the medical care of corp members. They are tasked with giving injured corp members on parade ground first aid treatment and preparing them for transportation to the camp clinic. They provide fast treatment to any corp member that complains of any illness at all. They may also sensitize corp members about health safety precautions and other important issues.
-
Who’s qualified to be on the Red Cross Team
Corp members that are mostly allowed to join this group are those that are from the medical discipline that is corp members that studied courses like nursing, health information management, pharmacy, etc. This doesn’t imply that others won’t be allowed to join too; it just means that those with expertise in medical practices have a higher chance of joining.
The Red Cross is considered the best group to join on camp because of the importance of its mission and the fact that you get breaks from parades while you’re on duty. You also get special treatment from NYSC officials and security operatives.
- Cultural and Social Group (Band, Dance, Social & Drama Group)
Cultural and Social group are groups of corp members tasked with various cultural and activities of the orientation course. Corp members in these groups represent their groups in competitions across the nation after camp and are given special treatment too just like the Band.
The various groups in this category and their purpose are:
- Band: These are corp members trained by NYSC official band to carry out the coordination of musical activities on camp. They’re in charge of the parade instruments and coordinate the parade throughout the orientation course. There are an elite group of people with special privileges like a special uniform and in some states special apartments. Once you become an accepted member of the band there is a very high chance that will be your CDS group when you get a PPA.
One thing to note about the band members is that they’re hardworking and are practicing at every chance they get; under the sun and the rain just like the Nysc anthem says. So if you know you can’t stay up on the parade ground to practice when others have been dismissed and have left please don’t join the band.
Dance Group: Groups of corp members organize and participate in dancing activities in camp, like inter platoon dancing competition. They promote arts and culture.
- Social Group: The social groups are group of corp members tasked with organizing social activities on camp. They help with adequate structuring of how activities such as Inter platoon competition, Camp carnival, etc will be. They organize musicians, comedians, etc that will be featured at what event. They’re often regarded as the life of the orientation camp because they make social activities fun and meaningful. They also identify talents on camp and help promote them on camp.
- Drama Group: The drama group are collections of corp members that come together to organize and take part in the orientation course’s theater activities. They organize plays and train corp members on how to act in plays. They are a very versatile group of people and promote arts and culture like the dance group.
Sports Group
The Sport group is a group tasked with creating an avenue for recreation and healthy rivalry among corps members and the community. They arouse the consciousness of living healthy and purposeful lifestyles through participation in one form of physical activity or the other. They also identify talents among Corps members and train them appropriately.
They are the ones in charge of organizing sports competitions for corp members and they officiate the competitions.
- On-Camp Broadcasting Service
The group dedicated to the dissemination of information on the camp. They give reports of all activities on camp. Such activities include sports, social activities, etc. They also disseminate news and special information to corp members.
Be sure to pay special consideration to information gotten from the OBS because while on the camp they’re your surest source of information.
That is all with the best groups to join that are available across all camps in the Nation. Be sure to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comment box. And if there is anything we’ve left out that you want to point out or you want to inquire about drop a comment below, we reply very fast.
