Int’ Volunteers Day: Oando Foundation Refurbishes School’s Early Child Care Classrooms

Oando Foundation recently led a team of volunteers who are Oando employees to engage with pupils of Metropolitan Nursery and Primary School, Sari-Iganmu, Orile; one of its adopted schools to refurbish its early child care classrooms.

The initiative with the theme ‘Trash to Art’, was aimed at providing age-appropriate educational materials and increasing creativity among learners through arts and crafts using fun-based activities such as still-life drawing, class painting, creative collages, sketching and coloring, among others.

Speaking on the visit, the Head of Oando Foundation, Mrs. Adekanla Adegoke said the 2019 Volunteer Day presented a unique opportunity for Oando’s employee volunteers to make a lasting impact by working with teachers and pupils of the school to refurbish their early childcare classrooms for better learning outcomes, as well as equipping them with relevant skills in arts and crafts to promote individual creativity.

“On this International Volunteer Day, we are reminded of how fortunate we are as an organisation to have such dedicated individuals willing and able to volunteer their time and resources in enriching the lives of others, especially those in our adopted schools.

“We believe in the power of collaboration through volunteerism in actualising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly goal four, which remains Oando Foundation’s key focal opportunity for volunteers and organisations to celebrate their efforts, to share their values and to promote their work among communities and other spheres of influence. “

She said the foundation, through its Adopt-a-School Initiative (AASI) continues to support the federal government’s efforts towards the actualisation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) goal, adding that there still exists a plethora of challenges directly impacting the quality of teaching and learning in public primary schools, including the absence of early childcare classrooms to cater to the needs of young learners aged zero-five years.

“Where available, these classrooms are mostly ill-equipped, lacking the requisite human and material resources to stimulate learning in a child-friendly and age appropriate environment.”

The Chief Compliance Officer, Oando Plc, Ayotola Jagun, who was also a volunteer, expressed delight about the turnout saying, “with the amount of volunteers that came out today to support the foundation’s drive, it is evident that Oando’s core values have been embedded in our DNA. As staff of Oando, we will continue to support the foundation’s efforts in mobilising resources to raise the standard of basic education in Nigeria.”

In his response, the Head Teacher of the school, Mr. Abiodun Julius thanked the foundation for the goodwill extended to the school, saying, “we truly appreciate Oando Foundation for adopting our school.

The foundation has been our partner for many years; they have supported us in training our teachers, providing a perimeter fence for improved security, awarding scholarships to our students, and giving us teaching and learning materials to help our teachers and students perform better. We are very grateful for what they have done today for our students, especially those in the nursery classes.”

The programme witnessed the pupils showing off their individual and group creations with excitement, ranging from class painting, redesigning to sketching and colouring, decorative paper chain making, face painting, still-life drawing, as well as card making.