Group partners SPDC to renovate, equip school library

TEACHING and learning got a boost recently in rural-based Model Secondary School located in Umualumaku Umuhim, Ehime Mbano when their renovated Library block, equipped with furniture and stocked with books, was formally handed over to the school amidst the excitement of staff, students, community members, parents and guardians.

The project was sponsored by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) in collaboration with Women And Children Development Initiative (WACDI), an NGO founded by Dr Tessy Madu, a Research Officer and Head of Consultancy and Training Unit of the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike, Abia State.

At the handing over and commissioning ceremony of the bungalow library, which was performed by Barrister Ify Maureen Okafor, who contested the Imo state PDP governorship primary and lost, the School Principal, Mrs Chinelo Njoku commended the WACDI Founder for her kindness in attracting the project from Shell saying, “this journey started in 2014 when suddenly, Dr Madu appeared with her team at the scene, as a solution to a deep need for help in spite of the fact that she had never been approached on the issue.”

“She and her team had started by setting up a Demonstration Farm in the school which they followed up by embarking on this task of renovating and re-equipping the school library which brought a lot of excitement to the staff.”

“I particularly commend her determination to continue the project having seen the decrepit and ill-equipped room that was called the school library.”

Even with the donation of the library, the Principal further said that the 37-year-old non- boarding school, lacks perimeter fence, students and staff residence, conveniences for staff and students, tables and chairs while the “laboratories are in a deplorable condition that should be seen rather than imagined and has many dilapidated blocks with leaking roofs”.

The Representative of the State Secondary Education Management Board Mr Paul Otumbadi, who donated some of the books he said he authored, commended WACDI and SPDC for bringing the facility to the school while urging the staff and students to make the best use of the library, bearing in mind that it was made possible by donors they did not know.