District Governor of Rotary International District 9110, Ifeyinwa Ejezie, has charged the management of Lagos Island Maternity Hospital to sustain the maintenance of items donated by the organisation to the hospital.

Ejezie gave this charge when she unveiled 25 new baby cots donated by the Rotary Club of Falomo to the hospital.

The gesture is part of its 2023 Maternal and Child Health Project embarked on by the Club. A similar donation of 25 baby cots was presented to the hospital in 2022.

According to Ejezie, who commended Rotary Club Falomo for providing the solution to one of the needs of the maternity hospital, sustainability can spur the Club to do more.

She said, “Rotary Club of Falomo is one of the vibrant clubs in the district and we are very proud of them for what they do for humanity. They are a good representative of Rotary International and that is why we are here to unveil 25 baby cots for children that will be born in this hospital.

“We know that Lagos Island Maternity Hospital is very well known and they have a lot of needs and the government cannot do it alone that is why Rotary in our normal way goes in and have a need assessment. We discovered that the maternity ward requires baby cots.

“I hereby charge the CMD and the management of the hospital that we carry out this gesture on one condition, which is sustainability. We give freely and do not ask for anything in return, all we ask is that what we have given should be sustained and maintained adequately. By the time we come back to see that it is being put to good use, we would be encouraged to do more. Sustainability is key to us.”

Earlier, the President of the Rotary Club Falomo, Ote Enaibe, listed the club’s areas of focus to include basic education and literary; water, sanitation, and hygiene; economic empowerment and community development, maternal and child health, among others.

He said, “Our club is among one of the 36,000 Rotary clubs globally. This is one of our yearly seven areas of interventions.”

Also, the immediate Past President of Rotary Club Falomo, Tolulope Ogundipe, said the project was started in 2022.

“We started it because saw the need and we took the lead. When we identified the need for the project, we ensured that it saw the light of day. We also acknowledge the sincerity of the CMD in working with us. We have been to other hospitals where they demand gratification from us because we carry out projects for them, but in this hospital, there were no such demands. That shows their level of integrity,” he said.

In his response, the Medical Director of the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Dr Olufemi Omololu, said, “We want to sincerely thank you for this gesture, it has given us a lot of relief, and we promise to put the cots to good use and ensure they are kept in the best condition always.”