WATER FACILITY FOR ZHIDU COMMUNITY

WATER FACILITY FOR ZHIDU COMMUNITY

Recently, there has been heated debate about the relevance of the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme and indeed some agitation for the programme to be scrapped or reformed. In the face of this, a few young Nigerians still consider the scheme as an opportunity to travel outside their regions and learn extensively about other regions of the country.

Among the crowd, an uncommon set of corps members appreciate the one-year programme as a platform to go beyond the norm by looking out for location-specific challenges and bringing solutions to those they consider important. Mr. Johnson Eseoghene, a 2017 corps member in FCT, Abuja belongs to this uncommon few.

It is puzzling to figure how Mr. Johnson mapped out Zhidu community, a settlement in Lugbe axis of Nigeria’s Federal Capacity Territory, Abuja. The peculiarities of this highly ignored community reflect in the absence of social amenities such as schools, water, roads, health centers, etc., There is so much that could be done in a community like Zhidu.

For corps member Johnson Eseoghene, his contribution as a personal community development service (CDS) was to drill a public borehole, funded by Hope Spring Water, to provide the people of Zhidu community clean water. In his words, “The project motivation that has pushed me to carry out this borehole project for Zhidu Community is the lack of safe water around the world. Many women and children, especially young girls, trek long distances to get water for their family. A lot of children also die daily from water-related diseases. I believe that providing this borehole will go a long way to save many lives and bring more development to Zhidu community.”

Johnson Eseoghene who is also the president of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) community development service (CDS) group, was well commended by officials of the National Youth Service Corps and the community leaders in Zhidu for his initiative.

Seyifunmi Adebote, Abuja

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