AFEADEN Reaffirms Commitment to Educational Devt

Donates School Bags, Books to Oworoshoki Nursery Primary School

Gilbert Ekugbe

The Africa Education Aid for Development Network (AFEADEN) has donated over 200 bags and exercise books to pupils of Oworoshoki Nursery and Primary School.

The move according to the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is coming on the heels of its vision to ensure that children go to school and stay in school.
The founder, AFEADEN, Judith Obi-Ikpa, explained that the role of Public Private Partnership in societal development cannot be overemphasised.

“The government alone cannot do it all and this is why the handshake between public and private is very important. We are also working other classrooms too as we are taking one after the other. Our vision is to ensure that children are able to go to school and stay in school. To stay in school they have to have the resources, the environment has to be conducive enough for learning,” she said.

“We were moved by the deplorable state of the classrooms, so we mobilised actions to ensure that we give the school a face-lift. According to one of the teachers in the school, the last time any upgrade was done in the school was way back ten years ago,” she bemoaned.

She however, called on the federal government to reduce the bureaucracies involved in getting approvals to carry out community development programmes, warning that it hinders and discourages many private institutions to lend a helping hand.

“The bureaucracies need to be lesser. It took us a long time to get approvals for carrying out this project. As long as there is that handshake, the enabling environment we will have overall development in communities,” she added.

According to her, the cost implication for carrying out the project gulped about N890,000 aside from other supports rendered by like-minded individuals.
Also speaking, the Project Manager, AFEADEN, Chijindum Ikpa, said the NGO is elated to carry out the life-changing project for the children, adding that every child must get access to quality education in the most conducive and environment for learning.

“We want to commend the AFEADEN for the opportunity to partner. We are very grateful that we could come out in mass to support the project. We are really happy to do this for the children and giving them a conducive environment to study. We are happy to be here and we will keep doing more as the Lord keeps blessing us,” he said.

On his part, the Parent Forum Chairman, Oworoshoki Nursery and Primary School, Mr. Mufutau Bolaji, extolled NGO’s efforts in renovating and upgrading the facilities of the school while also seeking increased PPPs to develop more schools begging for development in the community.

“Courtesy of AFEADEN, our school has been given a face lift which we believe would attract more students to our school,” he said.

The Head Teacher, Oworoshoki Nursery and Primary School, Mrs. Oyalabu Adeola, thanked AFEADEN for the face-lift impact on the school, acknowledging the fact that the federal government alone cannot meet the growing demand for public schools in different communities.

“We want to commend AFEADEN for renovating and improving the environment for conducive learning.

We know that the primary schools in Lagos are many and the government cannot do it all alone, saying this is why PPP’s role in complementing the federal government’s efforts in providing quality and conducive environment for learning cannot be overemphasised,” she said.