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Misinformation spreads widely, but at ROUNDCHECK, young fact-checkers are learning to fight it with truth. Through the ROUNDCHECK Volunteer Network, students and young internet users are being trained not only to detect misinformation, but also to combat it through verifications.
The Volunteer Network is an initiative by ROUNDCHECK designed to train young people on combating misinformation, mastering the fact-checking process and developing online verification skills. Created in 2022, the network has trained over 100 young people who now actively contribute to tackling misinformation across Nigeria and beyond.
Over the years, the Volunteer Network has grown into a hub for capacity building in fact-checking.
Caleb Ijioma, ROUNDCHECK’s Executive Director, noted the reason for establishing the Volunteer Network. He said that: “young people form a larger percentage of internet users and when they are aware of how information spreads, of how to check and consume information, online spaces will be safer”.
With Ijioma speaking about the success of the initiative, he emphasised that the impact of the project is evident not only in the professional growth of participants but also in community engagement.
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“We recently concluded the fourth cohort of the Voluntary Network, and we’ve seen how people from the Volunteer Network have gone to work in other established fact-checking organisations. These people have gone to win awards, they’ve gone to use the training they’ve gotten from the network, implementing it in the fight against misinformation.
“They can go back to their campus to also train. We’ve seen people who have come to the network, and they now hold training sessions on their campuses so that they can also make other young people aware and give them the training they’ve got, give it back to the community they came from,” Ijioma said.
The initiative, however, struggles with various challenges, particularly funding, however, the program has continued to grow.
“We have challenges with funding because when you bring in young people, you want to train them, you want to arm them with the necessary skills and information. For a project that spans across three months, you need funding,” Ijioma explained.
Former participants testify to the great impact the program has had on their professional lives.
Emmanuel Oluwadola, who now works as a freelance fact-checker with Dubawa, underscored how the program changed his life as it set the foundation for his fact-checking career.
Oluwadola expressed how a fact-check he reported when he was still a fellow at the Roundcheck Volunteer Network won him a national student fact-check award at CJID’s Alfred Opubor 2024 Next-Gen Campus Journalism Award.
“The Volunteer Network has a support culture that is strict and engaging – and has also helped the volunteers to become critical thinkers and innovators.”
Fatimah Idera, another ex-participant of the initiative, spoke on the importance of the training she had, describing it as one of the important parts of her journalism career.
She encourages future participants to be patient, to take their time to learn everything they have been taught in the training, as it would be very instrumental to them.
The Assistant Programme Director, Oluwasemilore Adelola, said that the impact of the programme goes beyond just training, but also taking the knowledge into their own communities, both online and offline, has made it worthwhile.
As the 5th cohort is set to begin, ROUNDCHECK is inviting passionate young people who want to play an active role in combating misinformation to apply for the initiative.
