By Abiodun Azi
Lagos – The Rotary International Club of New Towns, Oko-Oba, District 9110, Nigeria, on Friday inaugurated a toilet and a borehole it donated to Yewa Primary School in Orile Agege, Lagos State.
The District Governor for District 9110, Dr Olajide Akeredolu, who was on an official visit to the club, inaugurated the projects.
Akeredolu said that the club had identified areas where the communities needed assistance.
He said the club had to intervene because government could not do it alone.
He said that the donation was one of the areas of focus of Rotary International Club in community service.
He listed other areas to include: the provision of basic education, literacy, water, hygiene, sanitation, maternal and child health, disease prevention and control.
He said, “The former toilet facility in the school used to be a pit toilet but Rotary International Club had renovated it and a water closet system had been fixed to it.
“The borehole comes handy with the modern toilet,’’ he said.
Akerdolu also told the staff and the pupils of the school that their risks of contracting diseases through the toilet would be reduced with the availability of clean water around them.
“Rotarians pulled their resources together to try and serve the community because government cannot do it all,’’ he said.
Also speaking, Rotarian Tunde Orija, President Rotary International Club of New Towns, Oko-Oba, said that the new toilet had been divided into male and female sections.
“This is to control the spread of communicable diseases which is one of the focal points that the Rotary International Club was making efforts to eradicate.’’
He said that with the provisions of the toilet and the borehole for the school, the rate of water borne diseases and abdominal diseases among them would drop drastically.
Also, Chief Ambali Akeem, the Orile Agege community leader, commended the club for its past and present contributions to the school.
Akeem also thanked the club for the latest projects saying it showed the club members’ love for the staff and pupils of the school.
“It is the love for the pupils that made you to embark and complete the project in such a short time.
“I urge other clubs and philanthropists to emulate Rotary Club by donating to the community,’’ he said.
The head teacher of Yewa Primary School, Mrs Eunice Afuape, also thanked the club for donating socks and sandals to the school in the past.
Afuape said that the club had added another feather to its cap by renovating the school’s toilets and digging a borehole for the use of the school’s staff and the pupils.
“I was surprise when l was informed by the club’s representative that the borehole and the toilet were ready for inauguration.
“I urge the teachers and the pupils to make good use of the infrastructure.
“The teachers should inculcate sanitary habits and personal hygiene into the pupils for the infrastructure to last long,’’ she said.
(NAN)
