In a bid to complete one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Education), the Rotary Club of Falomo (District 9110 of Nigeria) has refurbished dilapidated windows, doors, and sideboards, among others at the St Georges Girls’ Primary School in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
The club also distributed 1,000 notebooks and 250 mosquito-treated nets to pupils of the school as its 2024 project for the all-girls public primary school.
Speaking after brief career talks with the pupils before distributing exercise books and mosquito nets, the President of the club, Ote Enaibe, on Sunday, said the project which was executed at the cost of N5 million, was meant to give a facelift lift to the school.
He said the club had in the last three years been carrying out projects aimed at upgrading the public school so that its infrastructure could be at par with other private schools in the highbrow Ikoyi axis of the state.
Enaibe said, “When we came to this school two years ago, the initial intention by the then President was to provide portable water because for over 10 years they did not have water, so, we did put a borehole.
“However, after the borehole, we realised that the school that is in the middle of Ikoyi, a luxury part of Lagos, has children whose parents are likely to be servants, maids, drivers, and other low-income earners, everyday workers, police, soldiers, traffic wardens, security guards, and others, they are the ones who send their kids here.
“We realised that even though the school is in the middle of where rich people reside, they lack some facilities. So, we decided as a club to carry out a three-year project campaign to improve the facilities of the school.
“After the water borehole project, we looked into their toilets that had not been changed for years, and so we modernised the girls’ toilets. We put mirrors and tiles and made it a modern one- that was 2023.
“This year, we saw that the doors and windows were dilapidated and affecting them when it rains. In some classrooms, there were no doors. So, we had to give a facelift to that by replacing the bad doors and windows as our 2024 projects.”
Enaibe and his team of Rotarians also had career talks with the pupils to give them a sense of direction in their educational pursuits.
“Some of these parents may not know what career means. So, as a club, we decided that we should change the narrative for the children by letting them know how to aspire to attain what they see every day in their society.”
In her response to the gesture, the Head Teacher of St. Georges Girls Primary School, Mrs Sherifat Adebayo, commended the club, adding that the relationship with the club had spanned some years.
“This relationship has been for a while. This is the third President that is carrying out projects here and we are always happy whenever they come around because they also inspire the pupils.
“However, we still have more of their attention in the area of provision of cleaning materials for the toilets and books,” she said.
