…as LGA Education Authority admits gesture first of its kind
.. By our correspondent
The Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Top Health has donated fifty one desks for sitting of three hundred students in the Community Primary School Arukwo, Abua Central, in Abua Odual Local Government Area, to improve on the educational facility in that area.
President of the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Top Health, John Kipoye said the gesture became imperative given the poor state of facilities in the only government school present in the area.
He said the school was built without desks and other basic facilities, and the pupils were learning sitting on the bare dusty floor.
” I’m happy that my club carried out this project of providing desk to these pupils. This project is carried out under the Rotary Area of Focus of Basic Education and Literacy, to give the pupils a befitting environment to learn from dust to desk. It is very heartening to see how excited they are to recieve this gift. The government can’t do it alone, we are assisting them to give our children a better education”.
On his part, Assistant Governor of the Rotary International district 9141 zone 16, ESV Ben Okoronkwo, while handing over the 300 desks to the school authorities, cleared that the government did not sponsor the project, rather the project is sponsored by Rotarians and other well meaning individuals who share the same vision as Rotary, as a Humanitarian organization.
AG Ben Okoronkwo advised the school authorities to utilize the desks and maintain them judiciously.
Responding, Supervising Director, Abua, Odual Local Government Education Authority, Osigwe George-Edudu, in what seemed to be a true confession said the act by the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Top Health is strange to the community. He such gesture is hardly seen in the area.
“I thank the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Top Health for moving our children from dust to desk. This is something that is strange to some of us here, that an NGO like Rotary will do such a thing that the state and local government will hardly do. Since my stay in the education sector, this is the second time I’m seeing such magnificent gesture from an NGO. I cherish it alot. Since we have been begging the state and local government to do such thing for us, no answer has been given. We thank you for rescuing this school from the sufferings of the local government”, the excited Education director said.
On his part, a Chief in the Arukwo community Inikio Oyagwapu told our correspondent Precious Ahiakwo-Ovie that the community lacks health facilities, water, power and needs more schools.
He said the community Primary School Arukwo is the only educational facility in the community containing over 500 pupils.
Our correspondent also reports that food items like plantain, a live goat, and fruits were given to members of the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Top Health by elders and chief of the community and the Arukwo students Union, in apprecia tion for the gesture.
