(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A total of 104 indigent female students of Community Secondary School (CSC) Oboll-Eke, in Udenu Council area of Enugu State have smiled home, as a Non governmental organization with bias for women and girls, Women Information Network (WINET) and her foreign partner, Mundo Cooperante of Spain awarded them scholarship.
Our correspondent reports that the foreign organization through the Enugu based NGO, is supporting the education of indigent girls in the State, via a project titled “Scholarship for Girls Education in Enugu State, Nigeria” under The Right to be a Girl Project.
Speaking during the ceremony held at the school premises, Executive Director of WINET, Mrs. Miriam Menkiti, disclosed that “CSS Obollo-Eke is the fifth Secondary School where female students have benefitted from the WINET/Mundo scholarship for this 2023-2024 academic session.
“The breakdown is as follows: one hundred and six (106) female students of Comprehensive Secondary School Akpasha and twenty-two (22) female students of Community Secondary School Iva –Valley received scholarship for 2023-2024 academic session.
Others are, sixty-nine (69) in Community Secondary School, Ejuona-Obukpa and thirty-seven (37) female students of Community Secondary School Obeleagu-Umana.
“And today the one-hundred and four students of Community Secondary School Obollo-Eke are enjoying scholarship for the third term only, with the provision of school bags, notebooks, mathematical sets and pens.
“This makes a total of three hundred and thirty-eight (338) indigent students who have benefitted from the WINET/Mundo scholarship and school materials for 2023-2024 academic year.
Represented by the organization’s Monitoring and Evaluation officer, Mrs. Chinelo Dim, the WINET boss, explained that the aim of the scholarship is to sustain the education of the girl child, so that her parents will not consider giving her out in marriage due to inability to support her education.
“That is the reason that parents of all the beneficiaries have signed commitment letters to affirm that they will not withdraw them from school during the period of this scholarship.
“As a member of the international coalition of an organization known as Girls Not Brides- the Global partnership to End Child Marriage, we are here to support the retention of girls in schools for their education.
“We want our girls to be educated; We do not want them to be given out in marriage at a tender age because they are girls and not yet matured enough to be brides”.
Menkiti noted that the Enugu State Child Rights Law (2016) prohibits child marriage which is the marriage of any girl child below the age of 18 years.
According to her, “the scholarship entails payment of school fees for third term only, presentation of school bags, notebooks, mathematical sets and pens.
“The principal can confirm that we have paid the 3rd term school fees for all the 104 girls and today we will present school bags, notebooks and other items to them.
“We appeal to the benefitting female students to make the best use of the opportunity offered by WINET and Mundo Cooperante to excel in their studies.
“WINET will request to know the 3rd term result of the benefitting students. Let me place it on record that we are here today with the kind permission of the Hon Commissioner for Education, Professor Ndubueze Mba and the Chairman, Post Primary Schools Management Board (PPSMB) the Reverend Father Dr. Hilary Mgbodile.
“We appreciate them, we thank Mundo Cooperante for supporting this project to retain our young girls in school.We thank the Principal, Vice Principal and the teachers for being very supportive of this project.
She added that “we acknowledge the presence of the School Based Management Committee (SBMC), Community representatives and parents of the beneficiaries here today.
In her remark, the joyous principal of the school, Mrs. Edith Chika Ugwu Agbo, expressed appreciation to the WINET and her foreign partner for the kind gesture, especially remembering a school in a rural community.
The principal, who expressed the school’s feelings through the Vice principal, Mr. Celestine Odoh, urged the intervention organizations to extend a similar gesture to students who are also prone to school drop out.
Responding on behalf of her benefiting colleagues, an SS2 student, Miss Mmesoma Onah, thanked the two organizations for the gesture, saying it would go a long way in boosting their academic pursuit.
She, however, assured the benefactors of their commitment in taking their studies very seriously, so as not to disappoint their parents, school and the two organizations.
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