From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Some Kaduna communities were agog recently when the third cohort of Kashim Ibrahim Fellows (KIF) rendered selfless services to the communities, for two weeks.
KIF is an initiative of the Kaduna State government under the leadership of governor Nasir El-rufai to equip young Nigerians from across the country to be an efficient public servants.
According to the Public Awareness Officer of KIF, Tolu Adetunji, the Fellows is a one-year non partisan programme that allows young Nigerians to understand the inner workings of public service by understudying veterans who are in public service.
The theme of the week long activities was, “Advancing social inclusion, one community at a time”.
Some of the activities carried out included upgrading of Aisikolaye health centre, an out patients clinic.
The KIF eye camp in Mahuta community in conjunction with medical experts from the National eye centre. People with eyes problem were tested and given medical aids.
There was also KIF ear camp in Badiko community and special school for people with impaired hearing. Persons with issues of hard hearing were attended to by medical experts from the National Ear centre.
Another community that was attended to is the Correctional Centre where some inmates who needed to pay some fines to get their freedom were assisted.
One of the community leaders, MUSA Zubair from Aisikolaye expressed gratitude for the establishment of the clinic, promising that the facility will be judiciously used when the need arose.
Tolu Adetunji explained further, “This is our community service week. Leadership is service to humanity. In planning community service week we shared responsibility to ourselves. I was given the responsibility of getting public awareness of what we are doing in every community.
“There are four components of the programme, we have community service, extension component, we go on quarterly service to MDAs to have first time experiences on the job, we have a situation where 15 young people from across the country live in one place for one year to enable us learn about other people’s culture, to bridge that gap that we used to have about superficial differences, so with the fellowship component of the programme, we get to understand one another, and as years go by we have a better unity in the country.
“The programme we had in Aisikolaye community area of Kaduna was the second phase of our community service week. We had community service in 2020. We unveiled Aisikolaye primary health center in Kaduna community. We renovated the health centre and donated KV Solar panels in conjunction with our development partners.
“This Solar panels will help the community to augment thier access to the national grid. We also donated Solar panels refrigerator to help keep their vaccines and other drugs safe because this is supposed to be their first call before any other health centre. We are hopeful that alot more will be done to bring awareness to this community. The people in the community themselves will take ownership of the project and patronise the facility.
“The community service was a week long activities, and we moved to other communities in the course of the week.
“We had eye testing programme in Mahuta community, we worked in conjunction with the National Eye Centre, minor eye issues was attended to; people who needed reading glasses, Vitamin A to improve thier sight were attended to.
“We also attended to people with disabilities, to make sure they feel belonged in the society. So we moved to Kaduna State special school with persons with disabilities. It is a boarding school where they have impaired hearing students. We gave guide helping equipment that would help them to do things on their own without someone aiding them. We also gave them reading devices.
“We also moved to Badiko community where persons with hearing problem were attended to by giving them medical assistance. We worked with National Ear Centre to test these persons and give them the medication they needed. We hope to impact on more people in this community and get philanthropists to assist them.
“Another community that needed our service is the Correctional Centre, which used to be called prison. We worked with the State ministry of Justice. We made some financial contributions to facilitate and ensure the release of some inmates who needed to pay some fines to get their freedom. This is where the community service week ended.
“We have learnt resilience, doggedness as members of the fellows. you don’t need to take no for an answer. It afforded us the opportunity to understand the challenges people in public service face, there is that anxiety of others versus them. However, one way or the other each and every one of us is connected to somebody in civil service. We all have a role to play to move Nigeria forward. I have learnt to advise people to move from finger pointing and blame game that we do alot to ensure that we set a standard as a civil servant to make our country great. We should put the interest of the office and the people we serve above personal interest”.