Wife of the Anambra State Governor, Mrs. Ebele Obiano, has embarked on a tour of some specialised schools in the state to identify with them and give the less privileged a sense of belonging.

The schools visited include Basden Memorial Special Education Centre, Isulo in Orumba South Local Government Area, Special Education Centre, Umuchu in Aguata LGA, as well as Zion Hospital and Maternity, Enugwu-ukwu, where she went to see a recovered abandoned baby boy admitted at the hospital.

Mrs. Obiano donated some food items ranging from bags of rice to beans, vegetable oil, salt, one cow and N50,000 each to each of the places visited.

She also commissioned a water borehole project at Basden Memorial Education Centre sponsored by her.

In her speech at the commissioning of the borehole, Mrs. Obiano appealed to philanthropic-spirited Anambra citizens to come to the aid of the pupils, saying that they were not the cause of their predicament.

She frowned at the state of the school environment, which was littered with dilapidated and collapsed buildings.

The first lady stressed that her gesture was in fulfillment of her earlier promise during a visit to the school two months ago.

She said: “I realised that some of their greatest challenges were lack of portable water as they had to travel over 2kms in search of water, poor feeding and infrastructure; even the condition of the school is highly deplorable.

“For the fact that they are handicapped does not warrant such abandonment; they are human beings and must be attended to by all of us, those with sight challenges can be trained through Braille reading.

“I decide to provide the school with borehole for portable and hygienic water and also rehabilitate the dormitory and classroom blocks to make them feel comfortable.”

She lamented the abandonment of construction work by contractors and some people who claimed to be representing donor agencies, accusing them of not doing the job but only rushed to the school that morning to pretend doing some work on hearing about her visit.

Delivering her welcome address, the school administrative secretary, Mrs. Ebere Ichoku, regretted that none of the former governors of the state ever visited the school since its inception 18 years ago.

While commending Mrs. Obiano for her efforts and gifts, especially cash to the children, staff and the school in general. She appealed for more assistance in the areas of funding, arguing that subvention of N580,000 monthly was very poor.

She called for the upgrading of the feeding allowance of N50,000 monthly, saying that the current daily feeding allowance of N33 a day, per pupil or N11,000 per meal is not encouraging.

Ichoku also complained of dilapidated structures, and lamented that roofs of the school library, refectory, workshop and staff quarters, etc, were all leaking and urgently need attention.

Speaking with News Express, two students of the school, Nnemeka Unaegbu and Uju Okonkwo, thanked Mrs. Obiano for her good gesture saying that she has remembered the poor and nearly forgotten citizens of Anambra.

At the Special Education Centre, Umuchi, the First Lady assured the management that whatever is due to them will be given to them, beginning with the new administration.

She said the event was aimed at improving lives of the children and those unborn in other to give them a hope of belonging.

•Photo shows Mrs. Ebele Obiano and husband, Governor Willie Obiano, carrying babies during a public outing.

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