The staff and students from three schools in the three senatorial districts of Bayelsa have applauded an NGO, Victims Support Fund (VSF), for donating solar-powered boreholes valued N55million to their schools.
They said that the boreholes would provide provision of portable water, promote sanitation and hygiene among the beneficiaries.
Mrs Grace Dafese, the Principal of Community Secondary School, Otuoke-Otuabagi, while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on behalf of other benefitting schools on Wednesday, commended VSF for the gesture.
According to her, the VSF task force on COVID-19 donated the three solar-powered boreholes worth N55 million to three different schools drawn from the three senatorial districts in Bayelsa.
She listed the schools as: Community Secondary School, Otuoke-Otuabagi in Ogbia Local Government Area (LGA), Community Secondary School Sagbama in Sagbama LGA, and Kaima Grammar School in Kolokumo/Opokuma LGA.
Dafese said that the VSF’s intervention was an encouragement to the staff and students to continue to learn in a safe and environmentally-friendly atmosphere.
She said that the intervention would enhance the compliance to COVID-19 protocols across the schools.
According to her, the availability of running water is fundamental to practising the COVID-19 protocol for hand washing.
She noted that solar-powered boreholes are suitable for schools due to their low operational and maintenance costs as they would not require fueling.
She said that other items donated to each of the schools include: 15 pieces of four-litre hand sanitiser, 360 bottles of 500ml liquid hand wash, 2,000 pieces of re-usable face masks and 15 cartons of bleach.
One of the benefitting students, Success Okpor, a senior secondary student said that the provision of four hand washing spots would enhance the culture of personal hygiene among students.
Okpor, the Senior Prefect of one of the benefitting schools said that the re-usable masks would serve as spare when they washed the ones they had previously used.
Okpor said that this is because his school was very strict on the enforcement of the COVID-19 safety protocols. (NAN)
