No fewer than 450 primary school pupils and secondary school students in Akinale area of Ogun State have been given scholarships and academic materials ahead of the 2024/25 academic session.
This move initiated by the Treasured Points of Light Foundation in partnership with the Spouses Forum and Nigeria society of Engineers, Abeokuta Branch was to support and encourage children from less privileged backgrounds.
The initiative tagged back-to-school outreach programme saw the foundation gave out 10 scholarships and writing materials to others.
The President of the foundation, Damilola Onebamhoin, speaking at the presentation on Saturday said more than 450 students have benefited from essential educational materials such as school bags, shoes, lunch bags, food flasks, water bottles and stationery.
She emphasised that the effort was intended to encourage a child back to school inspite of the nations current economic situation.
Onebamhoin said “ many things are actually discouraging, we have people dropping out of school randomly but in our own little way, we want to encourage a child back to school.”
She urged parents to value and prioritize their children stressing that regardless of the current economic situation the educational development of the child is important.
Addressing the children as they return back to school, she said, ” don’t focus on the limitation but look at the bright side; we have people who didn’t have shoes while they were growing up, but today, they are engineers, governors and even president.
So you can be anything you set out to be, don’t focus on what you don’t have but rather look inwards at what you have”.
On her part, President, Spouses Forum, Nigeria Society of Engineers, Abeokuta Branch, Ronke Idowu said the spouses forum decided to partner with the foundation because of the premium spouses of engineers place on education.
She said “education has shapened ourselves and our husbands who are engineers, with that, we need to empower the society including the children so they can have a brighter future and be more educated. We need more female engineers as well as male engineers.”