Inspired by the plight of the less advantaged persons, Rotarian Kola Oluyemi as a teenager vowed to reach out to those in dire needs, he joined Rotary Club, today Rotary Club of Victoria Island East unveils him as the 34th president of the club as he promised to fulfil his childhood dream to bring succour and support to less privileged people.

Commenting about his background that led him into humanitarian services, Oluyemi said:

“I grew up in a home that I have a Rotarian as an uncle, one incident happened to me when I was small and that really held deep in my heart, I was still a teenager I think 13years and in secondary school, my mother wanted us to clear the house for Christmas so that we would have some decongestion and we took out some clothes, washed them because she wanted us to take them for charity. There were some that we felt nobody would want, so we packed all of them and put them at our trash-can because everything wouldn’t fit into the trunk as we only got one truck box.

I happened to be playing soccer with my friends when the maintenance guys came to collect waste from the garbage trunk and there were two people by the trunk, they got down and ran towards the trunk box that contain all the clothes that we thought nobody would desire and they opened it and started struggling over those clothes, that really touched me because I never thought that there are people that would really want any of those clothes. So I made up my mind that when I grow up and every time I have the opportunity to render such help, then I would always give. That incident was really what inspires me into giving back to society.

According to the elected president, Oluyemi who went down memory, revealing how it all started for him, he said:

“Before I became a Rotarian I floated a charity organization unofficial with my friend Abiodun Esho when I was in First City Monument Bank and every Christmas my place of work would always be occupied with gifts by all the vendors, so instead of taking those gifts home I would re-pack them with my friend and take them to Makoko. So yearly they always look forward to such give away from us until around the year 2015 I couldn’t do the charity and my friend requested to know the reason, I told him I didn’t have money, so he suggested that instead of using my money I should join Rotary club and that was how I joined like-minded people in Rotary and together we started giving back to the society.

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He added his journey to Rotary club by saying:

“I wasn’t even thinking I would become the president as at the time I did, I was just ready to serve. I came trying to make a change and impact lives, so it just so happened that the election came up and they nominated me as president and I got voted in as the president. For me it makes no difference, it only makes the work more intense as regards the direction and the shouldering of all those things that are still hanging on your neck but basically it is the same thing as we are out to affect lives and make a change.

He explained that his tenure will focus on these key issues affecting the communities.

“Basically, part of my target or direction is to focus on schools as a lot of schools especially in Victoria Island do not have good toilets while some have toilets without water so the children just defecate and no one to clean. We have already identified six (6) schools where we are going to be making a change, refurbish the toilets and build new ones for the schools that do not have them.  Our focus is not just on schools, we have also discovered some primary health centers in this Eti-Osa that do not have the basic equipment particularly in their maternity suites, so we have been able to identify four (4) of them and the cost of equipping one is roughly 4million if we have to consider things such as the beds, incubators, and all other equipment.

He continued: “We are also doing things such as career talks for children as it is not just about fixing physical things but also about the minds of these children. A lot of children do not know what they want to do or become in the future, and their parents for those not educated and learned are not able to guide them so we are going to those schools giving career talks and leveraging what I call our eco-system of professionals and enlightening people to affect lives positively. So with that, we are also shaping the lives of these children and giving them the necessary information they need to create a future for themselves.