By Adewale Banjo
Oshodi Parapo Foundation (OPF), has donated educational materials to 15 public schools in Oshodi, Lagos State.
Chief Executive Officer, Solomons Ltd., Solomon Edukugho, said the gesture is aimed at bolstering educational support for students in Lagos State, adding that the NGO is on a mission to provide essential learning materials to schools, starting with a donation of free exercise books.
“Education has long been hailed as the key to unlocking a brighter future; yet, for many students across Lagos, financial constraints have stood as insurmountable barriers to accessing quality education,” Edukugho said.
Recognising the critical importance of addressing these challenges, the Foundation is steadfast in its commitment to levelling the playing field and ensuring every child has the opportunity to pursue his dreams.
“Apart from the fact that we made some donations, we decided to make inscription that can bring a form of sensitization on waste management to the students as well as the authorities on proper waste management.
“Our foundation has been advocating proper waste management, recycling and up cycling of waste is the way to go. In all of my presentations, we have always informed that government did not need to destroy plastic waste, there are so many products that can be up cycled from this waste and the value change is enormous. It would provide job opportunities and employment. Waste management has an estimated N80 billion industry if we decide to annex all the waste and recycle it.
“Why should anyone scrapped what can provide employment and wealth for the people.
“What we did today is just a way of giving back to the community, that they cannot leave everything to the government to do that is why people like us have to come in to help in our own capacity because education is very crucial to the development and growth of the children because they are the leaders of tomorrow.
“The foundation carried out a sensitization workshop where we trained the students on waste management and how it can provide wealth for them and their family.”
He added that for students who are interested in generating wealth from waste, they would be trained in factories afterwards equipment would be given them to up-skill them.
He employed government to have skill acquisition centres for waste management to sustain the environment.
On his part, General Secretary of the group, Olukayode Lemo, said we are leveraging on what we started. The green environment and effort made by Nigeria to sustaining our environment.
“We expect that stakeholders and the government is able to back up the initiative.
“However, Lemo said the success of the endeavours relies heavily on the collective efforts of compassionate individuals and organisations willing to lend their support, as the foundation extends its reach to the students.
He invites like-minded individuals who are passionate about education and youths empowerment to join hands in the noble cause.
“Together, let us rewrite the narratives of these students’ lives, fuel dreams, ignite possibilities, and transform futures.”
Lemo said the book not only serve academic purposes but equally, a sensitisation tool on waste disposal and management. We decided to constantly sensitize their minds on waste disposal so by the time they get to tertiary institutions, they would be used to protecting their environment. Our government is truly not doing much on waste management.
Also, the Education District Vl Chief Education Officer on Environment, Kudirat Olayinka Adeyemi, assured the organisation that the exercise books would be distributed properly among the 15 public secondary schools .
Adeyemi said they really appreciate the kind gesture from yhe organisation as it would go a long way in assisting the students and also relief the parents of buying notebooks for the kids as they expect more community people to also emulate the organisation to assist the kids in their area of learning.
He called on the organisation to invest more on equipping the students with skills. They need the skills on waste management to create wealth for themselves and needs tools to enhance it.
She lauded the wife of Lagos State Governor, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, as an initiator of environmental sustainability.
She has been actively involved with the campaign and advocacy.