Education
NGO Donates Educational Materials To Community
Anneozeng Ogozi Aid Foundation (AOAF), a Non-Governmental Organisation, yesterday donated educational materials and medicines to Kaida Community in Abuja.
The Founder of AOAF, Mr Anneozeng Ogozi said that she deemed it fit to provide Kaida community children with writing materials such as books, pencils, erasers, sharpeners and pens, to help foster education within the community.
She said the community had just one non-functional hospital and that prompted the need to also provide the village with malaria test kits, drips and deworming medicines, amongst others.
She said that her foundation had realised that the educational and medical system in Kaida was poor and needed the intervention of NGOs, federal government and other well meaning Nigerians.
“Children in this community look really malnourished with blotted stomachs and the hair on most girls have changed colour to red,” she said.
Ogozi said that her foundation was willing to place 20 randomly selected students on scholarship.
Our source reports that Ogozi, who initially wanted to sponsor just 20 students ended up sponsoring 36 students after seeing how passionate majority wanted to be selected for the scholarship.
Among those selected were orphans in the school and the best academically performing students, amongst others.
Ogozi said she decided to increase the number of beneficiaries because she realised that 20 was too low to be selected from the total number of students in the school.
“They all need help. They all cannot help themselves, they all cannot afford things for themselves.
“We will discuss with the teachers to know how their administration works here.
“We will make enquiries on, if the children pay school fees or if they are being taught for free, as that will also help us know how to place our support and assistance,” she said.
On the foundation’s visit to a nursery and primary school headed by missionaries in the community, the classrooms were found in poor conditions.
“This place is so timid that when the children see you, they start running so you will have to call them, make friends with them and let people who understand their language tell them you are not here to harm them.
“We first took them on a play session outside, just to calm their nerves as their classroom environment was really nothing to write home about,” Ogozi said.
The foundation also gave out clothes and footwears to some of the students they noticed were in school without footwears.
A Primary three beneficiary of the scholarship, Mary Paul, expressed gratitude for the kind gesture of the foundation.
She said that she was happy to get many writing materials but would like well meaning Nigerians to assist in restructuring the school.
A professor of Highway Engineering at the Rivers State University (RSU), Prof. Emmanuel Osilemme Ekwulo, has identified poor designs, inadequate materials, insufficient testing, and lack of accountability as major obstacles to the success of highway construction projects in the country.
Ekwulo made this remark in Port Harcourt last Wednesday during the 128th inaugural lecture series of the university, where he presented a lecture titled “Removing Roadblocks: Rebuilding a Foundation for Reliable Highway Pavement Infrastructure.”
The university don lamented the consistent premature failures of road construction projects nationwide, despite huge investments by the government at all levels, attributing the problem to neglected basics and systemic principles in the industry.
According to him, rebuilding the foundation technically, institutionally, and ethically is crucial to building strong and lasting pavements.
Ekwulo emphasized the need for political will, professional integrity, and commitment to engineering excellence to overcome the challenges.
“The metaphoric roadblocks are those challenges causing premature failures,” Ekwulo said, adding that identifying and addressing these roadblocks is key to rebuilding the nation’s highways.
He recommended that institutions involved in road design and construction adopt a mechanistic-empirical design approach, and develop a comprehensive framework for implementing the Nigerian Imperial and Mechanistic Pavement Design System (NEMPADS) approach.
Ekwulo also advocated for mandatory traffic load analysis, strengthened university-industry collaboration, and funding for applied pavement research.
Corruption, he noted, is a major challenge in the profession, saying severe punitive measures are needed to curb shabby practices leading to premature road failures.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Isaac Zeb-Obipi, described Ekwulo’s lecture as interesting and intriguing, highlighting the importance of implementing solutions to Nigeria’s highway challenges.
The Vice Chancellor also described Ekwulo’s proposals as practical and applicable to government and industry stakeholders.
He said the university is committed to research aligned with national development goals, referencing its NDV-12 responsive consortium production framework.
Zeb-Obipi noted that Ekwulo’s recommendations are timely and solution-driven, and will contribute to addressing Nigeria’s highway challenges.
Akujobi Amadi
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