The Nigeria Foundation for the Support of Victims of Terrorism — Victims Support Fund (VSF) on Friday handed over Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities worth N55million to three public secondary schools in Enugu State.
A correspondent of Ikengaonline who covered the event reports that each of the schools received a 4000 liter solar-powered borehole, four hand wash stations and 2000 pieces of reusable face masks.
Others are five pieces of four liter hand sanitisers, 120 bottles of 500ml liquid hand wash and cartons of bleach.
The benefitting schools are Girls Secondary School, Ngwo, Boys Secondary School, Agbani and Community Secondary School, Ugbene Ajima.
The Chairperson of the VSF Taskforce on Coronavirus (COVID-19), Mrs Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, said that the gesture was part of their COVID-19 intervention.
She said that it would be difficult for people to adhere to the hand wash safety protocol as directed by government when they do not have such facilities, including water.
She said that as part of its third phase COVID-19 intervention, VSF designed a community based needs assessment to determine who needed what in the implementation.
She said that the organisation was currently donating WASH facilities to 54 schools in 18 states of the federation, adding that they would have covered 31 states by April 2021.
She said that the implementation of the project was evenly spread to touch the six geopolitical zones of the country.
According to her, Abia and Anambra are the two other states in the South East that would benefit from the same gesture.
Akerele-Ogunsiji recalled that VSF had at the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic distributed food, medical consumables and protective equipment to 19 states across six geopolitical zones of the country.
She said they also provided support to National Council for Women Societies, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons and others.
She said that Enugu and Ebonyi were some of the states that benefitted then, adding that each benefitting state received gift items worth N120million.
Akerele-Ogunsiji appealed to the benefitting schools to put the facilities in good use, adding that they had the choice to reticulate the water in their host communities.
Responding, the Enugu State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze commended the organisation for its kind gesture.
Eze said that the state would ensure that the facilities were protected and maintained.
Earlier in an address of welcome, the Principal, Government College, Agbani, Mrs Uzoamaka Ani thanked the organisation for the gesture.
Ani, who spoke on behalf of other benefitting schools, said that the execution of the projects had solved their water needs.
The VSF is a programme-based organisation that provides interventions to support victims of terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria.
However, the organisation expanded the scope of its services to assist indigent families across the country during the COVID-19 lockdown.
