Photo: Shukurat Ibrahim with the Deputy Governor of Gombe State, His Excellency, Hon. Manasseh Daniel Jatau PhD
By: Lekan Tajudeen
Following the approval by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), a corp member serving in Gomber State, Shukurat Ibrahim, has concluded plans to embark on personal community development project tagged “Jewel Personal Community Development Project” in Gombe, the capital city of Gombe State as she seeks for support and partnership with relevant stakeholders in the community.
Ibrahim in a statement made available to Prime News disclosed that, the initiative was borne out of a yearning desire to bring hope and transformation to the lives of children in Gombe State by addressing pressing educational challenges and fostering their growth into future leaders.
According to her, the plan to embark on the project themed “Building Tomorrow’s Leaders in North-East Nigeria through Education was concluded after a thorough investigation of core needs of the community she serves.
She revealed that the dilapidated conditions of the students learning environments, particularly the toilet’s structure has given rise to open defecation amongst the students, expressing concern over the high possibility of contagious infections within the school community.
“During my investigation, I realized that there is low patronage in the education sector, a development which is worrisome, especially at this 21st century. My further findings revealed that most of the pupils do not have school materials which includes; Uniform, Sandals, books and pen.” Ibrahim explained.
“I proceeded to the school community and realized the dilapidated condition, particularly the toilets which posed grave dangers to the health of the children, which resulted to my aims towards making it my personal community development service (CDS) project, that as a way of encouraging, and promoting education within my place of primary assignment (PPA), I will struggle towards facilitating a befitting toilet in the school, which is to renovate the infrastructures.” She added.
The corp member explained further, her deep engagement with relevant stakeholders who have agreed to render her every possible support, stressing that she will do the project with the people and not for the people.
“The project will not be done for the people in the community, but with the people of the community as all relevant stakeholders will be carried along in every part of the project and be given a sense of belonging.”
Highlighting the project phase, Ibrahim noted that the first step of the project is organizing a parent/teachers meeting to enlighten them about the importance of education and providing necessary materials for the students, adding that a career talk follows for primary and secondary school students which will include a debate where there will be scholarship of at least a session for the winning students.
She furthered that the renovation of the toilets will follows and the provision of sandals and writing materials to be presented during the commissioning of the physical project.
However, explaining the challenges, the corp members lamented raising of funds to support the realization of the project, as she called on philanthropist, corporate organizations and well meaning Nigerians towards channeling resources to support her life changing project.
Shukurat Temitope Ibrahim is from Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State, currently serving the nation in Gombe Media Corporation, Gombe State.
She is a community development practitioner who has volunteer for several Non-Governmental Organizations some of which include the CountySide Emerging Leaders Fellowship (CELF), WEBFALA Digital Initiative For All, Haashim Initiative for Community Advancement (HICA) amongst many others.
Her experience and participation in community development initiatives has driven her desires to continue to serving humanity even as a corp member.
