Nigerian foreign-based students give a lending hand
By PAUL OHIA, 12.05.2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008

In a rare show of magnanimity, some young Nigerian students in Canadian universities have decided to give back to their fatherland what they feel their peers are missing. They have commenced the process of donating educational equipment to schools even thought they are yet to finish their own tertiary education.


For some people, once admitted to foreign universities, they forget the less privileged ones at home but Samuel Chujor, Nneamaka Madumelu, Tosin Akinwekomi and Rinret Dabeng with others came together to form a non profit organization called Bringing Educational Assistance to Many Inc (BEAMS Inc) to provide educational facilities to schools in Nigeria handicapped by poor infrastructure and amenities.

Chujor, who is the originator of this initiative, says thinking about the decay of facilities and deprivation that makes learning a herculean task in Nigeria gave him sleepless nights while engaging in academic work at York University in Canada. “Moreover, stories emanating from home did not give any hope of improvement,” he adds.

He pondered the fact that even when funds are available, authourities are reluctant to take care of Nigerian schools, leading to poor maintenance neglect, improper handling of facilities, reluctance and deliberate refusal to replace obsolete and broken down equipment.

Chujor, from his experience back home, knew that most public school buildings are dilapidated, crumbling, posing serious threats to safety of the students. Leaking and blown-off roofs, broken windows, damaged doors and flooded compounds are permanent features of school blocks across the country and in recent times collapsed school buildings have killed many pupils.

In some cases, he reminisced, classrooms without adequate ventilation are falling apart and over-crowded and insufficient furniture force children to sit on bare floors while receiving instructions from poorly motivated teachers. He also recalls that pupils carry benches and even desks to schools, especially in rural and sub-urban areas. In some places, children are taught under trees or in open spaces.

In several schools, at the secondary and tertiary levels, he laments, there are libraries either without books or scantily stocked with out-dated books, lacking reading tables and chairs; and no laboratories and where they are found nothing with which to conduct experiments. Workshops are grossly deficient in equipment and tools. Introductory technology can hardly be said to be going on, although it is in the school curriculum.

“Many schools do not have functional toilets, and where they exist, not flushable, due to lack of water. Some school toilets have become serious health hazards to children because faeces are littered all around, uncleared without any kind of sanitary application. Boreholes have packed up.

Even with the coming of the electronic board for teaching in the classrooms, replacing the old traditional black boards and chalk, most public schools still have rickety, over-used ineffective blackboads which can no longer show what is written legibly.

“Maps, charts, educational illustrations that aid classroom teaching are old, torn, weather-beaten or outdated, begging for replacement. Staff are clustered into derelict common rooms and offices. Chairs and tables are broken, depriving teachers of the minimum comfort needed. Students are crowded into dormitories and hostels, without adequate water supply, frequent electricity interruption, lack of waste disposal facility, clinics and medical centres that have no drugs.

“Recreational materials are either non existent or have become decadent. The same also goes for sporting facilities, the lack of which seems to have retarded development of school sports. Under these conditions, the education system has been seriously undermined, in terms of learning and teaching.”

The story is endless but Chujor would not sit back just to continue reflecting on the above scenario. He then decided to bring together like minded Nigerian students and on December 15, 2008, they will make personal deliveries of educational supplies to the Salvation Army School in Lagos. The equipment and tools were procured through fund raising efforts in Canada which started on April 18 2008, the date of inception of the not-for-profit organization. The organization with its directors and members hopes to make the donations a frequent event - annually and eventually on a quarterly basis. The aim is to try to deliver to as many different public schools as possible, providing substance and hope to the students of major cities in Nigeria.

BEAM's mission will be realised by the organizsation's executives personally delivering these supplies, not money, to these schools, emphasized Rinret Dabeng, the secretary of the group. The organisation also hopes to involve major Nigerian corporations in the near future to sponsor and give back to the communities to which they get products and services.

In addition to the contributions, Beam Inc also hopes to create awareness amongst people at home and abroad about the state of the Nigerian public school system. It is a commendable effort as the individuals involved in Bringing Educational Assistance to Many Inc. are all youth and students who have thought it necessary to give back to their nation.

BEAM's maintains that its primary mission is to provide educational assistance to underprivileged children in Nigeria's public school system. This assistance consists of providing educational materials such as notebooks, pens, pencils, etc, to students in elementary and secondary schools, laying emphasis on students who without this assistance might not be able to continue their education.

BEAM Inc. came into existence as a result of the experience and exposure to the Canadian and Nigerian public school systems. “In the Canadian school system, educational supplies such as textbooks, notebooks and other stationary items are subsidized and provided to students in the elementary and secondary school levels, such that each student is given a fair opportunity to succeed. In contrast, in Nigerian public schools, these educational materials are not subsidized and students have to acquire them on their own,” explains Beam.

The four founders of the non-profit venture come from diverse parts of Nigeria and this has given them adequate insight into the amount of decay inherent in the educational sector. Chujor, the president and founder comes from Rivers State and presently studies Political Science at York University, Toronto Canada.

Nneamaka Madumelu, the vice president, is a student of Political Science and International Development Studies also at York University and is from Anambra State. The secretary of the organization, Dabeng, who is from Patueau State, is with Queen's University, Kingston, Canada and is studying for a degree in Psychology with minor specialization in English Literature. While the Treasurer, Tosin Akinwekomi who is from Ondo State is working towards earning a Bachelor of Honours in Accounting in CMA at York University.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/dec/6/210.html

thumps up for u guys!


rinny used to be ma friend...shes still on track