By Nengi Josef Owei
STUDENTS of Government Girls Secondary School, Oromenike, D-Line, Port Harcourt, were overjoyed to receive a completely unexpected donation of new furniture from a long-standing neighbour, Casaka Ebenezer Foundation, on Thursday November 8, 2018.
In a show of gratitude, the girls danced, chanted and sang praises of Cakasa, posed with their new laboratory stools, and sat in jubilant rows on their long desks and chairs alongside their teachers. Principal of the school, Mrs Reginah Olisa, was also a beneficiary. Her office has since received a grand face-lift with an exclusive supply of new furniture.
The overture is a demonstration of the NGO’s strategy to provide educational support for children in public schools. During the hand-over ceremony, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, Gabriel Nkanyimuo, an electrical engineer, enjoined the students of the school to aspire to great heights.
“I challenge you to dream big,” he said. “The first step is to complete your education, no matter what. Study hard and your dreams will come true.” He declared that the Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation selected Government Girls Secondary School, Oromenike, Port Harcourt, for the donation after a comprehensive environmental evaluation and needs assessment of the challenges faced by the host community.
Citing the examples of prominent African women like the world acclaimed award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the electrical engineer charged the girls to see themselves as “change-agents and growing women who will make a difference in the world.”
According to him, the intervention effort was in line with the UN sustainable development goals, to provide quality education and encourage gender equality.
In her remarks, Mrs Helen Egbe, Executive Director of Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation, listed the focal areas of CEF activities to include community development, education, empowerment, health and research.
She stated that CEF was ardent in pursuing its vision to change lives for the better and transform society in the long run. Mrs Egbe revealed that the NGO had earlier in the year, empowered sixteen indigent women in various crafts by donating tools for their trade, as well as providing them with mentoring and psycho-social support. The women empowerment scheme, she revealed, was doing very well.
Principal of Government Girls Secondary School, Oromenike, Port Harcourt, Mrs Regina Olisa, expressed her gratitude to CEF for the furniture gift. Staff and students of the school, she said, were delighted that their school could be singled out for the NGO’s thoughtful humanitarian gesture.
She assured that proper care would be taken to maintain the donated items, and prayed that the NGO would grow in its resolve to spread goodwill to indigent individuals and groups.
The donation by CEF to Government Girls Secondary School, Oromenike, Port Harcourt, is the first by the NGO to any group in the southern part of the country. Conceived in 2005, Cakasa Ebenezer Foundation was established in 2011 as a vehicle to provide support to weak and vulnerable members of society.
A total of fifty long desks and fifty laboratory stools were presented to the school. “Every one of the customized furniture pieces were manufactured on the premises of Casaka right in Oromenike, next door to the girls school,” said Engineer Gabriel Nkanyimuo. “We are well equipped for that.”
The Foundation is a corporate social responsibility initiative of Cakasa Nigeria Limited. The event was witnessed and lauded by a full representation from the Rivers State Ministry of Education.