BY LAJU ARENYEKA

Residents of Special Correctional Facility  for Girls, Idi-Araba Lagos, were awestruck at the sight of their newly launched library last weekend. Hundreds of new books on different subjects, were donated by the humanitarian arm of the Covenant University Alumni Students Association (CUASA).

Members of the humanitarian arm, which is named Helping Other People Excel (H.O.P.E) also painted the library and donated new furniture to the once sparse room. Vice-President of CUASA, Mr. Reginald Bassey explained the need for such an initiative:

“This is very exciting for us because one of the things we need to build in this country is the reading culture. It is important that we start building a reading tradition for the next generation and there is no better time to start that than now, with children whose habits are still forming. Great men’s stories are in books and it’s important that children encounter such inspiring stories. It will expand their minds and give them the ability to think outside the box.”

Mr. Tobi David, the leader of the school support group arm of H.O.P.E said: “Someone once said that the greatest charity is not to give people alms but to teach them how they can of themselves give alms. That’s what we are doing here today by giving them books to read. We don’t just want to give then fish, we want to teach them how to fish. This is empowering them to give to other people in the near future.”

Staff and children at the facility responded positively to the gesture. Mrs A. A Ajala, a guardian at the facility said: “The event today is a great one. It has inspired the young ones to understand that to become great in life, you need a good reading habit. I want to thank the organisers and we trust that God will reward them in abundance.”

Prior to the library launch, H.O.P.E conducted a Possibilities Talk Show which featured successful ladies in different fields such as fashion, media, and catering to inspire the girls. The guests included caterer, Morenike Isola, Fashion executive, Oluwadamisi Tayo, and Advertising executive, Akimusure Oluwakemi.

Akimusure said: “We want them to understand that neither their past, the society or even the present situation can be compared to what lies on their inside. From their response and the questions they asked,  we could see that these girls are encouraged, inspired and fired up to take on the world. In the next five or ten years, we have no doubt that people will stand up and applaud them.”

Remi Ademiju, an official of H.O.P.E said: “The possibility talk show was about showing them a visual picture of the future. The idea was to bring people who are involved in such areas and expose them to the possibilities in such areas.”