Our Correspondent, 14 May 2020
Miss Chibueze Alexandra-Tochi, a corps member serving with the Nigerian Navy Ship Victory in Calabar has awarded scholarship to four secondary school students in Calabar.
The beneficiaries are Imoh Alexandra, SSI and Esther Sunday JSS1, both from Magret Ekpo Secondary School while Esther Imoke and John Imoke, JSS 3 and SSSI from Model Secondary School, Uwanse, are orphans at the Uwanse Motherless Babies Home.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the scholarship was carried out by the Corps member with the support of Nigerian Navy in Calabar.
NAN also reports that the scholarship will take care of the beneficiaries financial requirements throughout their secondary education period.
Alexandra-Tochi, a graduate of Microbiology, Abia State University and the Queen of Batch B Stream II 2019/2020 orientation course, said the gesture was part of her Community Development Service to the host community of her primary assignment.
According to her, the gesture was one of the ways she could motivate the younger one through achieving their educational pursuit.
"As a corps member serving with the Nigerian Navy in Calabar, I had to do a need assessment through the Community Development Service and I found out that the best way to impact on the society was to promote the education of the vulnerable", she said.
Responding, Principal of the school, Mr Ndoma Achor, thanked the corps member and the Nigerian Navy for identifying two vulnerable students from the school to benefit from the gesture.
Alhaji Mohammed Nakamba, the Cross River Coordinator of National Youth Service Corps, appreciated the efforts of the corps member and urged her to keep up the good work.
Nakamba, who was represented by Mrs Dimma Anyacho, Director of Deployment and Relocation of the scheme in the state, said the gesture had reduced the financial burden of the parents of the beneficiaries.
While at the Orphanage Home, the Corps member gave out the sum of N200,000 for Esther Imoke and John Imoke for their secondary education programme.
She said that the aim was to give the children a positive outlook towards life, especially during this period of Covid-19 that visitation to the home had reduced.
Speaking, the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command, Rear Admiral David Adeniran, said the vision of the command was to encourage corps members to add value to their host communities.
Adeniran, who was represented by Commander Sunday Ozah, said the Navy had to give the corps member the full support for her projects when she outlined them during a public speaking programme organised by the Navy for corps members in the command.
Dr Peter Ipole, Director of Administration in the Ministry of Humanity and Social Welfare, who received the money on behalf of the children, thanked the corps member and the Navy for their humanitarian service to the vulnerable.
