The Empowering Girl Initiative Committee of Rotary International District 9125 and five clubs have commissioned over N8million worth of toilets and bathrooms for Government Girls Secondary School(GGSS) in Dutse, Abuja.
Both the district committee and the clubs built five toilets, five bathrooms, 13ft by 12ft soak away, and renovated four toilets and four bathrooms.
The partner Rotary clubs are Abuja Kubwa, Abuja Prestige, Abuja Aso-Golf, Abuja Maitama, and Abuja Lugbe VON in District 9125.
The Governor for District 9125, Dr. Goddy Nnadi said the projects covered many areas of focus including disease prevention and treatment; water and sanitation; maternal and child health and basic education and literacy..
Nnadi said Rotary places premium on impactful projects.
He said the organization will continue to embark on projects that will touch lives in the 23 states and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja in the district.
He said: “All the projects we have done, are projects that will impact on human beings. We will continue to do more to improve the quality of life in the society.
Explaining how the district’s committee selected GGSS Dutse, the Governor said: “We conducted needs assessment.
“When we came here, the first thing we did was engagement. We engaged the school authorities to identify their areas of need. This assessment is important for you to know what they want, and that it makes sense to them.
“And then we realized that the environment was not so good, especially for our young girls. It is a kind of human debasement when you have a lady bathing and defecating outside. There were not enough toilets and some toilets had collapsed.
On the cost of the project, Nnadi said: “The project should be about N8million. The whole project took us less than eight months to complete.
“I’m so pleased that is so impactful, that when they get in there, they will feel dignified, to stay inside, take the shower and come out”.
The GGSS School Principal, Hajia Fatima Muhammad, who commended Rotary for the intervention assured that the facilities will be adequately maintained.
The Principal said: “I am too excited that my girls would conveniently go to toilet and use the convenience as expected for either bathing or the other call of nature. “
On what the situation was before Rotary Club’s intervention, she said “it wasn’t looking good. She added: “It was not habitable in any way and not conducive. But today we are smiling. But we feel like pulling out buckets of water and running in there now to bath”.
“The children are already receiving training and sensitization on maintenance, especially on the need to ensure that they enter the toilet with adequate water to wash and then always leave the toilet the way they want to meet it again. So this is the slogan we are using now. Leave the toilet the way you would want to meet it again”.
Also speaking, the Chairperson Empowering Girls Initiative and District Committee Chairperson, Lovina Okorn-Ntui disclosed that the intervention was informed by Rotary International (RI) mandate to impact the life of the girl child.
She said: “So, when we got to this school, it broke my heart that the girls were bathing outside. Just in the open and you know, the female is open. And when you’re open and you’re bathing, what happens? You can easily contract infections, which may affect their reproductive organs.
“So it gave us concern. We came here, we gave them sensitization. We did a foundation laying of the project, and to the glory of God, we’re here today to commission”.
On his part, the Head of the Department of Works, Secondary Education Board, Alh. Abubakar Haruna Kawo appealed to other Non-Governmental Organizations to emulate Rotary.
