The Rotary Club of Akoka has called for continued expansion of government interventions in destitute homes across the state.
President, Rotary Club of Akoka, Rtn. (Dr) Doyin Ogunyemi made the call at the commissioning of two septic tanks, 10 toilets and bathrooms and an upgraded sanitary facility facilitated by Rotary Club of Akoka at the Oko-baba destitute home in the Ebute-Meta (East) Lagos Mainland of Lagos State on Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Club.
Ogunyemi disclosed that disease prevention is one of the seven focus areas of Rotary Club of Akoka.
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Speaking on the situation of the homes prior to Rotary’s intervention, she said, “This home houses over 2000 inhabitants both young and old and the risks of transferring diseases are high. So, one of our projects for the year 2024/2025 was to upgrade the facilities to prevent the outbreak and spread of diseases. We noticed that the soak away was overfloating feaces and the reason was that it was only 2fts deep.
“So, one of the interventions we have done today is to make it 8ft deeper and also fix the male and female toilets and the piping to allow water to run into the toilets. This will go a long way in reducing diseases for inhabitants. So that’s why there’s urgent need for the government to continue to expand the interventions.
“We are celebrating our 40th anniversary in three-fold. We were at the Destitute Home, Oko-baba, Lagos, where we unveiled some projects and upgraded their latrine toilets and bathrooms. We also painted the toilets.
“We also provided them boreholes. The second event of the day is the colloquium, where we had discussants, including past District Governors, who spoke on the theme ‘Sustaining the core values & substance of Rotary in a challenged economy like Nigeria’. They spoke on different areas including integrity, leadership and fellowship. We are also having a banquet, where we will induct three Rotarians. Rotary is for humanitarian services. We help the society. We have done several things including providing facilities and even promoting tree planting.”
Also speaking, a member of the Rotary Club of Akoka, Rotarian Olasunkanmi Osho raised concern about the unhealthy living condition of inhabitants in the homes.
He said, “It’s a huge concern that people with various deformities live in such an unhealthy environment and that one effort that Rotary has to make it one of our projects for the Rotary year. A drop in the ocean goes a long way but by this admittance, I will say this is clarion call to all well-meaning Clubs, individuals and corporate organizations to step in and do things to alleviate their living conditions because that’s why they are called the less-privileged. To the government, I want to encourage them to do more. There might also be a need for experienced personnel to be stationed here. This will enable the government to maintain a hold on the facility.”
The MoH of the Lagos Mainland Local government, Dr Babatunde Oshoba who was represented by the apex Chief Health Officer, Mrs. Ronke Mohammed said the local government authority ensure that inhabitants of the home have access to quality healthcare.
He said, “For instance, we are here today to commission the reconstruction of toilets and septic tanks by Rotary Club of Akoka. The septic tank has been leaking feaces into the drainage and Rotary Club took it upon itself to reconstruct it and upgrade the toilets and bathrooms with modern equipment. This is laudable and worthy of commendation. It complements the efforts of the government towards ensuring that the people living in the home lead a good and healthy life. The local government is trying its best to ensure that inmates in the Homes have access to quality healthcare but one of our major challenges is that they are not ready to change. The council management is trying its best to build a mini–Health Centre that would cater for the health needs of the people living here.”
A past District Governor, Dr Tunji Funsho, who chaired the colloquium, stated that Rotary is always interfacing with the local, state and federal governments on many of their projects.
He stated, “One of our greatest projects has been polio eradication. Rotary has always been at the forefront, but the government, UNICEF and WHO provide the funds to carry out the eradication. We are always in partnership with the government, especially for advocacy. There is no country in the world that has many Non-Governmental Organisations like the United States of America (USA). They are the richest country in the world, but they have NGOs that do the things that the government might not be able to do. The government cannot do everything. We are there to complement and supplement what the government is doing”
PDG Yomi Adewunmi, who delivered a lecture titled, “Core values of Rotary,” said it is a worldwide network of individuals who convert their passions to change communities.
Adewunmi stressed that there are 36,000 Rotary clubs in 200 regions and countries.
“Our values are fellowship, integrity, diversity, service and leadership. Diversity because everybody is treated equally and inclusively. 22% of our members are women and more are still joining,” he stated.
PDG Bola Oyelade, who spoke on “fellowship,” said that Rotary started through friendship and that the club thrives on it through clubs and districts.
Oyelade said that through friendship, they are able to serve the community better than they could do individually.
“Coming together has taught us better ways of doing things. Friendship will take us higher than we expect. We are friends. How much friendship have we permitted? We will grow in leaps and bounds through fellowship. With friendship, we can pull resources together. We need to grow our clubs through fellowship,” he said.
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