UK-based foundation donates books to Central School Obioma

United Kingdom-based Ihezie Foundation has donated books to Central School Obioma in Udi Local Government Area, Enugu State, to encourage and support reading among students.

A 40ft container of books was donated to the school by the foundation, which mission is to source used and new primary and secondary school textbooks and novels in the UK and donate them to schools in developing countries such as Nigeria.

The books were presented to the school’s patron, Ike Chioke, who re-built the school in 2021 and has since been committed to the development and growth of the students.

Chioke, who was represented by Jerome Okolo, praised the foundation, which is run by Chief Aloysius Ihezie.

He said, “I express my heartfelt gratitude to Ihezie Foundation on behalf of Obioma Central School Education Foundation for this transformative donation of a container of books to the school. Nigeria has been experiencing a particularly difficult period since its economic recession in 2016. A fractured political system has essentially allowed the country’s endemic challenges to spread to the point where they now appear to be overwhelming leadership and governance at all levels.

“Insecurity, corruption and economic mismanagement have become so rife that there is hardly any mention these days of the critical ingredient to development, which is human capital development.”

He condemned the pains Nigerians go through in the hands of kidnappers, bandits, poor infrastructure, rising poverty and other social and economic ills impeding human capital development.

According to him, education at all levels is under severe threat in Nigeria, which has over 20 million children who are not attending school.

OCSEF was founded to intervene in the education sector in a meaningful and impactful way.

The first project, he stated, was to construct a new school, Central School Obioma, to replace the old one, which was built in 1937.

“The donation of these books by the Ihezie Foundation is especially welcome at this time. It will go a long way in strengthening the learning standards of students of CS Obioma and many other students in schools in neighbouring towns and states who will share in the ripple effect of this generosity,” he added.

In September, the school received 400 books from a delegation led by BookMySchool’s Chairman, Abdullahi Idris.