By Anthony Nwachukwu

Students of Wesley Community School for the Hearing Impaired in Surulere, Lagos State, can now study in a more relaxed academic environment free from leaking roofs and other challenges after interventions by BridgeIt and partners.

Aimed at improving the learning environment for children living with disabilities and promoting greater inclusion, the organisation, under its Include Me Surulere corporate social responsibility (CSR), fixed the leaking roofs and constructed new restrooms. It also painted the classrooms and installed road signs to alert motorists to the presence of persons living with disabilities.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, the Secretary to Surulere Local Council Area, Kehinde Agoro, commended BridgeIt for supporting the council and the school, stressing that government alone could not shoulder the responsibility of providing every needed intervention.

Agoro urged businesses and other organisations operating in Surulere to identify the needs of the community and support them through CSR to bridge what he described as a significant gap between the quality of education in public and private schools in Surulere.

“We are willing and ready to partner organisations within the council to address these needs for primary schools and other basic amenities,” he said.

For her part, Adefile Oluwapelumi, who represented BRIDGEit, the Titan House CSR team, said the initiative was inspired by her familiarity with the community and the limited attention to the school despite the students’ talents.

She noted that the students had recently competed against those from other schools without hearing or speech impairments and won, thereby demonstrating what they could achieve if given opportunities.

According to Oluwapelumi, BRIDGEit initially planned to engage and encourage the students but discovered pressing infrastructural needs, which led to the renovation of the roofs and construction of restrooms.

She added that the ICT facilities still included obsolete laptops, even as students had also demonstrated impressive capacity during a recent training on making electronic gloves.

Consequently, “our goal is to close the gap between society and vulnerable people,” she said, as road signs were also installed after an accident involving a student, Exodus Okon, who could not hear an approaching bus.

Meanwhile, the Baale of Obele-Odan in Surulere, Shittu Onimole, commended the initiative, describing the intervention as particularly significant for targeting a school for hearing-impaired children. He urged residents and businesses to replicate it across other public schools.

For the Principal, Mrs Elizabeth Popoola, leaking roofs had disrupted classes whenever it rained, while students in the upper floors also had to descend to use the old restrooms. However, the newly constructed restrooms would now reduce distractions and improve accessibility, she stated.

Meanwhile, a parent, Meseire Adugosi, whose daughter is in Basic 6, welcomed the intervention and also appealed for a school bus and a secondary school annex to save parents the difficulty of transitioning their children into conventional secondary schools after primary education.