CBOF Foundation, Rotary Club Partner To Promote Standard of Education

Emma Okonji

In a bid to promote standard of education and to make teaching and learning a lot easier, Chris Bamidele Onalaja Foundation (CBOF), in partnership with Rotary Club of Maryland, Ikeja District 9110, this week, commissioned and handed over a newly built and fully furnished block of classrooms and hall to Community Junior Secondary School, located in Wasimi, Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos.

The block of classrooms, with staff room, offices and hall, was built inside the community school from foundation to completion by the foundation, in collaboration with Rotary Club of Maryland, Ikeja District 9110, and handed over to the community.

Pleased with the donation, the Principal of the school, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Sadare, thanked the CBOF Foundation and Rotary Club of Maryland for their kind gesture. According to her, “Rotary Club visited the school and demanded for the needs of the school. We told them the school needed more classrooms and a hall, including an expanded staff room, to ease teaching and learning and to make the students study under a conducive environment. We were asked if we had a piece of land within the school premises and we showed them a piece of land inside the school premises. Within few weeks, the foundation was laid and within few months, the block of three classrooms, staff room, principal office and hall that are well furnished, were ready for commissioning and we are indeed very grateful to CBOF and Rotary Club,” Sadare said.

Speaking during the commissioning on Tuesday this week, the President, Rotary Club of Maryland, who doubles as the Founder of CBOF Foundation, Mr. Bamidele Onalaja, said the block of furnished classrooms, was part of the corporate social responsibility of the Club a d the Foundation. “Rotary Club is about giving to the society and we are happy to donate the block of classrooms to the school as planned. This is part of our contribution to improving the standard of education in Lagos State. Apart from donating the school building, we also donated exercise books for the students and teachers and we are glad we were able to accomplish all of that as planned,” Onalaja said.

Chairman, Nigerian Union of Teachers, Lagos branch, Comrade Alase Sakirudeen Adekunle, who was present at the commissioning and handing over of the school building to the community, thanked the Foundation and the club for the successful collaboration to build and donate a block of classrooms to a community school at a time when school population is outgrowing the available classrooms for learning.

Permanent Secretary/Tutor General, Education District VI, who was represented at the commissioning of the school building, applauded the uncommon efforts of the Foundation and the Rotary Club of Maryland, Ikeja, and asked the management of the school to take full advantage of the facilities to promote healthy teaching and learning.

CBOF was created with the vision to contribute to the sustainability, growth and development of humanity. The Foundation’s core areas are:

Child and Maternal Health; Education and Scholarship grants; Economic and Community Development; Widows Empowerment; Water sanitation and hygiene; and Disease, Prevention and Control.

Over the years, the Foundation has empowered several widows with financial support and skills acquisition trainings; the foundation has also provided support for childcare and youth empowerment.

Its community outreach was particularly aggressive during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown when the foundation through RevolutionPlus Property distributed palliatives to over 1,000 households in Lagos.