Some teenagers have benefitted from the give-back effort of a non-governmental organisation, Gender Alive Foundation (GAF), aimed at ensuring their welfare to ensure they focus on what is right and take up leadership positions among the peers.
GAF supported the teenagers with pair of glasses ahead of the 2024/2025 school resumption after undergoing a medical test at the Eleta Eye Institute so that their academic activities will not be disturbed.
The Executive Director of GAF, Jadesola Ajibola, while speaking at the eye clinic at Eleta Ibadan, said that the process started during the organisation’s 2024 International Leadership Academy which featured collaboration between GAF and Eleta Eye Institute; the institute spoke to the teenagers that participated in the leadership camp about the care of their eyes and conducted eye screening for them, where it was discovered that 12 out of the 60 children needed a pair of glasses.
GAF approached one of its partners, Star Enzymes who promised to support with the total sum of N70,000 to get eye glasses for the children and upon fulfilling its promises, Gender Alive team took the children to pick up their glasses at the institute.
“For us we discovered that the beneficiaries of the eye glasses actually have challenges being able to see the board in class, they shared with us how difficult it had been for them and during our interaction, we found out that it affected their performance as well,” she said.
She added that the exercise was in fulfillment of our promises to do a follow up for the children who needed support, adding that “we would not only camp them and leave, we will continue to mentor them and support them in our little ways, where we can’t give the needed support, we will reach out to well-meaning Nigerians and donors for support.
“We want to sincerely appreciate Star Enzymes for providing the financial support for the children, we are aware that some of them need notebooks and some writing materials, we are equally working hard to make this happen, on or before school resumes.
“Gender Alive Foundation is keen on touching lives and reaching out to support every gender in our society. We will not relent until we have reached everyone around us,” she added.
The Partner, Star Enzymes also promised to do more for the teenagers. The founder, Olufadeke Omo-Omorodion, said “this is not the first time we are supporting children in Nigeria, we have done it in Lagos and other parts of the country. This year, we decided to come to Oyo State because we believe in what Mrs Ajibola is doing through GAF, we know her antecedents and we believe that her passion for children can turn a hopeless situation around.”
Mrs Ajibola thanked Star Enzymes and the management of Eleta Eye Institute for their support towards this dreams and vision for a better tomorrow and parents for allowing their children to participate.
Some of the children, who spoke while receiving their glasses, thanked all the partners for making the glasses available and supporting them to keep their eyes good.
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