s part of the celebration to mark this year’s 2023 Children’s Day, Network for the Advancement of Persons with Visible Disabilities (NAPVID) in collaboration with the Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has gifted about 400 special needs children in the state.
NAPVID, alongside representative of SUBEB on Thursday and Friday were at some special schools in Benin City, to celebrate as well as distribute gifts to the children and teaching members of staff.
The schools visited include schools for hearing and visually impaired, that for the physically challenged, Payne Primary and Eyaen’ugie Primary Schools in the state capital.
According to Melody Omosah, NAPVID’s executive director, the visit is in line with the organization’s ‘Project HELP’ education and palliative components supported by the state government to cater for persons with disabilities in the state.
Omosah, while admonishing the pupils to be serious with their studies, urged teachers at the schools to be committed to their duties, to ensure they lay solid foundation for the children.
“Recall that we’re partnering with the Edo State Government, because in 2021 we reached out to the government, and the government decided to partner with us (NAPVID), and we launched what we called the NAPVID health, education, livelihood and palliatives persons with disabilities. So, under the education and palliative components of that project HELP, we have come out to identify with pupils of these schools”, remarked Omosah, at the school for the hearing impaired.
Also, Akinjare Olarewaju, representative of Edo SUBEB commended NAPVID for the initiative, noted that the government was aware of the challenges faced by the schools and arrangement were on to fix it.
The children who could not hide their joy, expressed appreciation to the state government and NAPVID for the gesture, which according to them would encourage them to do well in their academic works.
