When Rotary Club of Omole-Golden District 9110 decided to key into the Lagos State’s Ministry of Education’s Support Our School Initiative by donating an
information technology laboratory to Oke-Ira Senior Grammar School, in Ojodu Local Council Development Area, it was driven by the need to improve access to ICT to as many students as possible.
Among its members, it raised about N2.5 million with which it procured 21 computer sets, 21 uninterrupted power supply (UPS) sets, two air conditioners, tables and chairs which it donated to the school. In addition to the donation, the club also provided internet connectivity with a year’s subscription and maintenance fully paid.
Though that was not the club’s first intervention in the school, as it had done so several times; ranging from the sinking of a borehole, renovation of restroom facilities and provision of classroom furniture, among others. The ICT laboratory opened for it a new vista, as it won for the club a “Corporate Social Responsibility Award” from the immediate past Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Fashola, in March.
The Governor, who had always enunciated the need for private support in improving governance, praised the club for the intervention; which, according to him, has gone a long way in adding value to government’s huge expenditure on education and improving teacher-learning outcome.
The President of the club, Chris Alabi; an expert in information and telecommunication (IT) said the club’s decision to embark on the project was informed by the Rotary International’s tradition of needs assessment in its bid to
improve the lives of the under-privileged people. This, he said, was carried out after consultation with the school authorities.
He said: “Having identified the ICT laboratory as a key deficiency in the school and allotted a space for it, we started with tilling the floor, painting the walls, getting the furniture ready and procurement of the computers and their accessories.”
In her remarks, the school Principal Mrs. Sarumi expressed her gratitude to the club’s good gesture towards the students in the past six years, adding that the ICT project would help to improve access to information and improve the students’ academic performance in both local and national examinations.
Though the school’s ICT laboratory was one of the flagship projects, it was
just one of the 13 major projects embarked upon by the club in its six jurisdictions in the past one year for which it won the district’s coveted “Overall Best Club Trophy,” at a lavish event which held on May16 at Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. It was the overall best, beating 80 other clubs that constitutes District 9110.
Another intervention carried out during the year was donation of a six-room restroom and sinking of borehole in Ajuwon Grammar School under its water
and sanitation programme.
Within the year, the club donated an incubator to the Ifako Ijaiye General Hospital. The incubator, which brings to six the number of incubators the club had so far donated to the hospital, aimed at improving access to quality health care and reducing infant mortality in the state.
Still on its intervention on health, was the de-worming of over 2,000 pupils of Oba Ogundimu Primary School, in Iju, another catchment area of the club, in its bid to prevent and treat the various forms of worm infestation.
The exercise, which took place in March, was directly carried out by members of the club who administered drugs on the pupils. This results from their determination to ensure the success of the exercise.
In a lecture by Rotarian Dr Omowunmi Bakare, a member of the committee in charge of the project, the pupils and staff of the school were informed of the
importance of maintaining proper hygiene as well as regular de-worming which he described as the key to prevention of several diseases and worm infestations.
In its bid to arrest the spread of Ebola when the epidemic broke out last year, it carried out sanitation awareness campaigns to the grassroots. The club, in August last year, had an Ebola awareness campaign at Iju Market, Iju Agege. It was a-three-in-one event that not only witnessed the awareness campaign but also hand- washing exercise aimed at teaching the traders how often they should wash their hands and the proper way of doing so.
The club also donated environmental sanitation materials such as waste bags, rakes and trolleys to the traders for the proper cleaning of the market.
Though Polio, a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease has declined rapidly since 1985, the club has been very active in waging a war against the disease which is ravaging more than 10 million children under the age of five and is capable of rendering them paralysed.
The club chose to intervene this year with a walk tagged “the golden walk,” to create awareness not only to mark the 10th year anniversary of the club, but also to draw attention to the intervention in the global war against polio.
The club also organised polio quiz competition for secondary school students tagged “End Polio Now” message.
Speaking on his major achievements as he prepares to step aside this month, Alabi said he was happy to be leading a team of young professionals and philanthropists who have unbridled dedication to service to humanity.
Alabi further said his greatest achievement would be the overall best trophy
won by the club this year, beating all other member-clubs in district
9110 to the coveted trophy.
According to him, he has also introduced probity, transparency and accountability in the administration of the club, a development, he said, has improved members’ drive to be part of the club’s activities and funding.
Alabi, who was a member of the youth arm of Rotary Club when he was in the secondary school said: “It is all about young people trying to do something little in their community and ensuring that they leave their communities better than they met it.”
He said he was moved to joining Omole-Golden in his bid to continue with the humanitarian activities after his education.
“I joined the club because of my interest to continue to contribute to humanitarian causes after my university education. I love doing it and I won’t stop serving humanity through Rotary Club,” Alabi said.
At its weekly meeting held penultimate Friday, which also marked the presentation and launch of the club’s magazine called Golden Tones, Alabi said he was proud to be bequeathing a strong and vibrant club, adding that he is confident that his successor would be inheriting a tradition of service and would better the records he has set in the club.
He added that he is looking forward to his successor leading the club towards attaining the mega status which would be attained if the club hit the 100 membership mark.
He said the desire for membership growth would continue to fire its capacity to achieve more for the under-privileged and poor masses who daily live under dire conditions.