Foundation empowers widows, donates desks to public schools

The Innocent Udoidiong Foundation based in Akwa Ibom State said it had empowered widows and widowers and donated dual desks to public primary and secondary schools across the state.

It said the gesture was informed by a report written by a journalist that students of the only Grammar School in Ibeno Local Government Area were sitting on bare floor to write public examination and receive lectures.

The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Mr Innocent Udoidiong, who said this on Friday in Etim Ekpo LGA while presenting dual desks, uniforms and a set of school band to four public primary schools in the area, added that learning would not be effective in such an atmosphere where students were sitting on bare floor to write or learn.

Our correspondent reports that a total of 60 dual desks were donated to Government Primary School Nkwot Ikot Ebo, Holy Rosary Catholic School, Ikot Udo Obong, Qua Iboe Church, Oruk Ata 2, while QIC Group School, Ibio Nnung Achat, received uniforms and a set of school band.

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Speaking at the ceremony, Udoidiong, who was represented at the occasion by a member of the foundation, Mr Anthony Esin, said the foundation had been able to touch the lives of pupils and students in various schools across the state.

He said, “We are here today to donate these dual desks to Government Primary School, Nkwot Ikot Ebo. We have seen the need to support and partner with the state government because education is not something that only government alone should handle; it needs collaboration and partnership.

“Akwa Ibom State has provided free and compulsory education and they have done their best, although what they have done may not be enough to sustain the free and compulsory education.

“As you can see, here is a dilapidated school block, there is another uncompleted building there. If you go to classrooms, you find out out that pupils sometimes sit on the bare floor and some crowding in a particular desk to learn. In such atmosphere, teaching and learning cannot be effective.

“A particular case was in a Secondary Grammar School, Upenekang, in Ibeno Local Government Area which happens to be the only secondary school in Ibeno LGA. A journalist did a report that students in that school were sitting on the floor to receive lectures and write examination and that report got the attention of the foundation and our CEO graciously approved that we go down there and donate dual desks and we we did that some months ago.

“In Uyo, we did a similar gesture to Government Primary School, Aka Road, where students were sitting on bare floor, and I want to announce that after, the government saw the need to visit the school and also donate more desks. We have also empowered widows and widowers with grants to enable them to start businesses of their own.

“What we are doing today may not be enough, but it is a clarion call on other persons, individuals and organisations in the society to come to the aid of pupils in public school in the state.”

Receiving the desks on behalf of one of the school, the Headmaster of Government Primary School Nkwot Ikot Ebo, Mr Mfon Udoessien, appreciated the donor for the gesture.

He said before the intervention, he had written several letters to the state government but to no avail, adding that the intervention had brought a great relief to the pupils and teachers alike.