10 November 2009
Lagos — A United States based Enugu Diaspora group, Ozara Union USA (OUUSA), has donated 5,100 customized exercise books and other writing materials worth N.6 million to six primary schools in Ozalla in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, under its annual Educational Assistance Project (EAP). The writing materials included biros, rulers, pencils and erasers.
Also donated to the schools were cash prizes of various sums to the best pupils from primary one to six in each of the six schools numbering 108, as well as souvenirs to their teachers and headmasters.
Presenting the educational supplies and cash awards at the premises of the schools, the groups vice president, Chief Steve Agu, who led a team of local representatives of the union, said the gesture was in keeping with their commitment to the promotion of education in the town especially from the foundation level.
He observed that it was in realization that the educational needs of their children could not be left to government alone that OUUSA launched the support programme five years ago, pointing out that it has grown and improved in scope and quality over the years.
Agu said the 2009 annual convention of the union held recently in New Jersey, United States, focused on the deplorable condition of primary and secondary schools in the area and expressed the hope that with the support of public-spirited individuals and organizations, the association would in the coming years move to another phase of renovating schools.
The vice president explained that the cash awards were to encourage scholarship and competitive spirit in the school children, and urged them to justify the association's investments by excelling in both learning and character.
He called on other Igbo diaspora groups to emulate the OUUSA initiative in community service and use their knowledge and exposure to make a difference in the lives of their people at home.
He also used the opportunity to call for the name of the town to be corrected to Ozara as it originally was before it was as anglicized by the colonial masters, and urged other Igbo communities to reject such British-imposed identities.
Two traditional rulers from the area, Igwe Casmir Igwe of Obeagwu-Ozalla, and Igwe Donald Nwochi of Etiti-Ozalla, among other community leaders and parents who witnessed the distribution exercises, in their separate speeches showered praises on OUUSA, describing them as the leading lights of self-help development in the town.
The presentation ceremonies, which generated excitement in the schools, featured drama presentations, recitations, dancing and speaking competitions by the kids.
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