Encomium
Wife of Ondo State Governor, and founder, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu Foundation (BAAF), Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, has been showered with tons of encomiums from stakeholders following the recent completion and commissioning of two 6-unit toilet and bathroom facilities for dormitory students at Egbu Girls Secondary School, Egbu, Imo state.
Speaking while commissioning the facilities for immediate use by the students, the Lord Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Egbu, Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Enyinnaya Okoroafor, lauded the intervention project executed by BAAF, and thanked the First Lady for coming to the rescue of the school by providing the much needed facilities through her foundation.
He charged the students of EGSS to work hard with determination, and utilize the education they were receiving at school, in order to become great personalities like Mrs Akeredolu, who is also an old student of the school.
He further charged the dormitory girls and their matrons to preserve the privileged facilities provided them, promising to occasionally inspect the area to assess maintenance.
In her remarks, the principal of Egbu Girls Secondary School, Lady Onyekachi Basil-Nwachukwu, conveyed her gratitude to Mrs Akeredolu for always showing concern for her alma mater, recounting her numerous supports to the school, including the recent project being commissioned.
She thanked BAAF for the UNICEF-standard facilities provided for the dormitory girls to improve Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) culture, and prayed God to continue to replenish their founder and grant her greater heights through her foundation.
A student representative also offered her appreciation on behalf of the dormitory girls, and promised they would make good use of the facilities.
Dormitory students of Egbu Girls Secondary School had hitherto been faced with the problems of distant accessibility of dysfunctional toilet and bathroom facilities, and a low level of WASH and menstrual hygiene practices.
Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu Foundation (BAAF), a leading local/community level non-governmental organization (NGO) in Nigeria with a mandate to end open defecation and promote proper WASH culture in public schools/communities, had come to the rescue by providing functional, basic service level WASH facilities for the dormitory girls.
BAAF also engaged both students and staff of EGSS on health talks bordering on solid waste management, personal and environmental hygiene, menstrual health, and sex education.
The girls were also taught how to produce basic cleaning products such as liquid soap, bleach, antiseptic and germicide, with the project culminating in the establishment of a school health club, with student executives and staff matron.
EGSS becomes the latest school to benefit from BAAF’s WASH intervention projects following selected schools in Ondo and Imo states so far.
BAAF will continue to provide technical support to these schools to ensure sustainability of the WASH projects.
In attendance at the commissioning were the dormitory students and members of the school management, including a representative of the Old Girls Association of EGSS, Mrs Chichi Onu, BAAF WASH project team, and some members of the Mpama-Egbu community.
