The Rotary Club of Abuja Delight (RCAD) has donated educational materials, completed toilet facilities and empowered two indigent women as part of a three-in-one intervention aimed at improving education, sanitation and economic opportunities in Guita community, Bwari area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The intervention, carried out under the club’s Basic Education and Literacy, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Community Economic Development projects, included the donation of 30 student desks, five teachers’ tables and chairs, four large whiteboards, 10 school registers, writing materials for pupils, dusters and markers, 10 modern record/diary books and 60 long notebooks.
The club also completed two units of toilet facilities at the community LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School and donated an industrial grinding machine to one of the beneficiaries, Godiya Ibrahim, while another indigent woman, Sarah Adams received tailoring materials to strengthen her business.
Speaking at the event, the District Governor-elect of Rotary International District 9127, Rtn Dr Chijioke Ekechukwu, said the intervention demonstrated Rotary’s commitment to improving the lives of underserved communities.
Ekechukwu said the projects were particularly significant because Guita was an interior community where residents had basic needs that required urgent attention.
He explained that Rotary normally conducts needs assessments before intervening in communities to identify their most pressing challenges.
According to him, the club’s intervention was based on the needs identified by members of the community rather than projects imposed on them.
“Once we identify their problems, we will obviously know what they need, and when we identify what they need, then it is important that we provide,” he said.
While speaking with journalists, Ekechukwu noted the projects were funded by members of the Rotary Club of Abuja Delight, stressing that Rotary members regularly contribute towards projects designed to support disadvantaged communities.
He challenged the government at levels and other organisations to replicate such interventions, saying greater development could be achieved if institutions, schools and health facilities received sustained attention.
“You can imagine if one club could do what we have done. Imagine what would have been achieved if the Government itself put more interest in making sure that our institutions, our schools, our hospitals and health centres are in a good position,” he said.
The Charter President of Rotary Club of Abuja Delight, Rotarian Justina Evidence Ndubisi, said the club deliberately designed the intervention around three areas to address the immediate needs of the community.
Ndubisi said the education component followed an assessment which revealed that pupils often sat on the floor or borrowed desks from neighbouring schools.
She said the club subsequently provided 30 desks, teachers’ tables and chairs, whiteboards and other learning and administrative materials requested by the school.
“We did not just go to the market and start buying. We actually asked them what they needed, and they gave us a list. They told us that the children did not have enough seats and that sometimes they had to sit on the floor or borrow desks from other schools,” she said.
On the WASH component, she said the club completed two toilet units that had been constructed but lacked essential finishing and flooring.
“The toilet had been constructed, but there was nothing inside. There was no proper flooring and other things that were needed. We came in and completed it because we understand that sanitation is directly connected to the health of the children,” she said.
According to Ndubisi, providing proper toilet facilities was important in preventing diseases and improving hygiene among pupils.
She said the third component focused on community economic development, under which two women were identified and supported with equipment and materials needed for their businesses.
The president disclosed that the club had adopted the Guita community and would continue to seek opportunities to support it, including through partnerships with other Rotary clubs, members, non-members and friends of the Rotary.
The village head of Guita community, Mathias Abubakar Ibrahim, commended the Rotary Club of Abuja Delight, for what he described as a significant intervention in education, sanitation and economic empowerment.
Ibrahim said the community had not experienced such support from the Government in the areas covered by the project, adding that the Rotary intervention had brought renewed hope to residents.
He particularly appealed to the Government to establish a more befitting junior secondary school in the community, take over its day-to-day runnings, provide a principal, qualified teachers and other personnel needed.
According to him, children in the community currently travel long distances to access junior secondary education, including trekking to Chikakore and other communities.
The head of the school, Mr Adams Bako, said the school had existed for about two years and was initially established as a community initiative pending government intervention.
Bako, who manages both the primary and junior secondary sections, said the school previously lacked adequate furniture and toilet facilities, forcing the pupils to go to the bush for their toilet needs, source plastic chairs and borrow desks.
He said the Rotary intervention had significantly changed the situation, particularly with the provision of teachers’ tables and chairs, pupils’ desks and the completion of the toilet facilities.
“I never expected that such things would be like that. But today I can see my teachers now have a lot of chairs, and those who don’t have tables, we have tables to comfortably sit down and mark the work of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, the district chair for Economic Empowerment and Development and Convener/Adviser of the Rotary Club Abuja Delight, PAG Rotarian Lovina Okorn-Ntui, called on governments at all levels to intensify interventions in rural communities across Nigeria.
Okorn said insecurity had also become a major concern in the Guita community, following repeated kidnapping incidents that had affected school attendance.
She said some parents had withdrawn their children from school because of fears over their safety, urging the Bwari area council chairman, ward councillor and other elected representatives to take concrete steps to improve security and development in the area.
“The President of Nigeria cannot do everything. We have ministers, members of the House of Representatives, senators, a local government chairman and councillors. They should stand up to their game and do what they were elected to do,” she said.
Okorn-Ntui emphasised that Rotary’s intervention was intended to complement government efforts and demonstrate how targeted investments in education, sanitation, security and livelihoods could improve the wellbeing of rural communities.
The club’s intervention also included the feeding of 150 pupils and teachers as part of the activities marking the project.
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