Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The South Saharan Social Development Organisation (SSDO) and ActionAid Nigeria, on Saturday, donated 30 combined seats and desks to three rural community primary schools in Enugu State.
The donation was made to three communities in three Local Government Area (LGAs), where the Non-Governmental Organisations had been working for years, which include: Ihenyi community in Isi-Uzo LGA; Ameke community in Aninri LGA and Igga community in Uzo-Uwani LGA.
Making the donation to Central Primary School, Igga in Uzo-Uwani, the Programme Manager of SSDO’s Local Rights Programme (LRP), Miss Priye West, said that the donation was necessitated by discovery of inadequate seats/desks for the children during recent visits.
West said that the NGOs donated 10 combined seats and desks, which have capacity for six pupils, to each of the three communities.
According to her, some of the pupils were literally sitting on the floor and some hanging on the window of their classrooms during class time.
“When we saw the need to intervene, we had a stakeholder meeting with the community leaders and education leaders.
“At the stakeholders meeting conducted with community members, there they suggested a local carpenter to construct these combined seats and desks to promote local or community economic status through the intervention.
“This cycle of engagement with stakeholders and engaging local carpenters was repeated for all the other communities where we carried out this special intervention,” she explained.
Responding, the Head Teacher of Central Primary School, Igga, Mr Christian Okafor, thanked the NGOs for the donation, adding that the donation would go a long way to sort out the inadequate seats/desks in the school.
“We are highly grateful for your selfless intervention and the need to see that our children learn in a conducive environment,” Okafor said.
Prince Charles Chijioke, representative from the Education Department of the council area, noted that seats and desks remained vital in making a conducive learning environment; adding, “we appreciate SSDO and ActionAid for this support.”
The Catechist of the community, Mr Lawrence Igwebueze, thanked the NGOs for the intervention as well as their previous intervention of giving each primary school pupil in the community a water bottle.
“The water bottle you gave to our children earlier this year has helped to stop truancy and our children leaving the school to drink water at home while the school hour is still on.
“We are also grateful for providing our children with seats and desks. But as Oliver Twist; we are still asking for more and you still assist us in any area you can to bring our school to the best standard,” Igwebueze said.
One of the pupils of the school, Master Chinedu Ogar, thanked SSDO and Actionaid for the seats and desks as well as other interventions in his school so far.
The Local Rights Programme (LRP) is meant to improve education in marginalised communities especially those found in rural communities.
