—inducts them into Interact Club

By Kingsley Adegboye

Rotary Club of Ikeja GRA, Lagos, on Thursday empowered students of Opebi Junior Grammar School, Lagos, by donating to them school bags, books and writing materials.

The Club also inducted six students of the school into Interact Club as a build up to become members of Rotary Club International in the future.

The induction of Interact Club which is in phases, is expected to see more of the students joining the baby club of Rotary Club International.

Explaining the essence of the donation project, the President of Rotary Club of Ikeja GRA, Rtn. Abigail Akano, said the project is to give back to the society, pointing out as Rotary Club of Ikeja GRA, this is one of the areas of focus of Rotary Club.

According to her, “the theme of this month of September is ‘Basic

 Education and Literacy’. What we are doing here today is giving children basic needs for school.

“As schools have resumed, some children haven’t resumed because they can’t afford their basic needs for school, and that is where Rotary Club comes in. The government can’t do everything. That is why Rotary Club closes that gap.

“So, basically, we are here to donate school bags, exercise books, socks,writing materials to the students of Opebi Junior Grammar School.”

On the choice of the school, Rtn. Akano noted that “we carried out a need assessment and we found out that students of this school lacked materials for their education, and that is why we are here to give to them so that they can come and continue their education.

On the induction of Interact Club in the school, she said “In Rotary, we have the Rotaract kid, the Interact and the Rotaractor Club. We believe that leadership starts from little, that is why we are doing this to groom them as leaders to become great leaders in the future and when they finish from secondary school, they will move on to Rotaractors before becoming rotarians.

“I believe that the education of our young ones should not stop because they can’t afford their basic needs for school. I also appeal to other notable personalities to embrace what Rotary is doing to ensure that their education is not cut short and to their parents, they should do whatever they can to ensure that the education of their children continues.

“It is not going to be a one-off thing. We just induced and interact club here in this school, which means they are already part of us, we can also see them as our members. We already have a president for the interaction club here in Opebi Junior Grammar School.We will be relating with them.”

Advising the inducted interact club members, immediate past president of Rotary Club of Ikeja GRA and now vice president at the provincial level, said they should see themselves from now on as ambassadors of good behaviour and character as well as lead by good example.