The Victims Support Fund (VSF), Emergency Task Force on COVID-19, on Monday donated three solar-powered boreholes and other Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities to some secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Presenting the facilities in Abuja, the Chairperson of the task force, Mrs Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, said the organisation was concerned about the plight of students and teachers, especially in densely populated areas.
Akerele-Ogunsiji said that the project involved presentations of 54 boreholes facilities and 216 hand-washing stations to 18 states across the six geopolitical zones, including the FCT, estimated at N210 million.
The benefiting schools in the FCT, were Government Day Secondary School, Bwari, Government Secondary School, Kuje and Junior Secondary School, Asokoro.
Each of the schools received a solar-powered borehole, four hand-wash stations, 2000 Pieces of re-usable facemasks, five pieces of four-litre hand-sanitisers, 120 bottles of 500ml liquid hand-wash and five cartons of bleach.
Akerele-Ogunsiji also said that hand-wash stations had been set up in three schools in 18 states, across the six geopolitical zones, adding that liquid hand-wash soap, sanitisers and bleach would be supplied as well.
She said that the aim was to encourage regular hand-washing among students and teachers in schools because ‘ hand washing is the singular preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We want to see how we can contribute to the containment of the virus, by helping public schools in low income communities around the country, to observe the COVID-19 protocols”, the chairperson said.
According to her, the Task Force on COVID-19 is an emergency response team inaugurated by the Chairman of the Victims Support Fund, Gen. TY Danjuma (rtd), to provide palliative measures to displaced persons and the vulnerable, as well as provide institutional support to agencies supporting the national efforts to fight COVID-19.
Akerele-Ogunsiji said that the task force, which had successfully carried out the first and second phases of the COVID- 19 intervention in April and June 2020, also commenced the third Phase of its intervention on Nov. 19, in Abuja.
“This third phase was necessitated by the pervasiveness of the Coronavirus and the hardship across the country,’’ she explained.
In his remarks, Mr Leramoh Abdurazaq, Acting Secretary, Education Secretariat, on behalf of the FCT administration, commended the taskforce for the gesture, while calling on other public spirited Nigerians to support the government to entrench quality education in the country.
“We know that the responsibility of delivering quality education is a task that government alone will not be able to handle without the support of good-spirited Nigerians.
“As organisations and individuals, we have a responsibility to ensure that our students and personnel, responsible for delivering quality education to them, need to operate in safe environments,’’ he said.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Dr Favour Edem-Nse, Principal GSS, Bwari, assured the taskforce that the facilities would be properly maintained and the nose marks judiciously distributed among the students.
