NAN-H-29
Donation
By Martha Agas
Jos, Feb. 23, 2018 (NAN) Rotary Club of Naraguta District 9125 in Plateau on Friday donated eight wheel chairs to children with disabilities and distributed books to 120 indigent children in public primary schools, its official said.
The district President of the Club, Ms Theresa Eyetan, said this in Jos during cultural day celebration.
Eyetan said the wheel chairs were distributed to reduce the hardship of the children, while the books were to assist them in their studies.
She added that “these children cannot afford writing materials and suffer hardship in accessing quality education.
“We also donated 50 twin chairs and tables each to St John and Islamiyya schools which are all public schools in 2017.”
She said the objectives of rotary cultural day were to raise the level of consciousness, understanding, awareness and tolerance of inter cultural differences and share different cultural experiences.
“The cultural day celebration is also to show that Rotarians are people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds who come together to serve humanity.
“It is a reminder for us to continue to protect our heritage so that generations unborn will benefit from it.”
Eyetan pointed out that peace was a critical criterion for accelerating progress, saying it would boost revenue generation for more developmental projects.
The president said cultural diversity should not be a factor for conflict, pointing out that accommodating differences strengthened coexistence and mutualism.
“We need each other, irrespective of different culture to function well,’’ she said.
Mr Peter Mwankon, Plateau former Commissioner for Tourism, Culture and Hospitality, said building peaceful coexistence required understanding the roots of conflict to mitigate violence and find path toward reconciliation and healing.
In his paper entitled: “Rotary, Culture and Peace,’’ the ex-commissioner said the club was inclusive and accommodated people of different political ideology, religion, country, culture and race to work in unison for humanity.
Prof. Joseph Obilom from University of Jos, stressed the importance of parents teaching their children their mother tongue, saying defaulters had lost their personalities and heritage.
Highlights of the event were traditional cultural pageantry by members of the club and donations by members to help the indigent in the society. (NAN) MAA/FF/HA
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Edited by Fela Fashoro/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu