Why we chose not to shut down, rather fed 10m during Covid – Virginia Major
•As District 9141 mounts 4th Annual Conference •District Gov says its about ‘helping the helpers’
District 9141 of Rotary Club International (Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, and Edo states) under Virginia Major as District Governor has mounted its 4th annual conference series with the aim of helping the helpers. Rotarians work daily to help people but many members have lost their jobs and the many of the CEOS among them have become jobless, thus needing help.
The 2021 annual conference is thus aimed at helping the helpers to stand again and continue helping humanity. The District Governor, Virginia Major, told newsmen Monday, May 17, 2021, that the option that faced Rotary in the heat of the pandemic (2020) which was beginning of her reign was to either shut down or find ways to help. She said if they shut down, would the hunger and needs of the poor shut down?
Motivated by the silent answer, she and her team chose to find ways to reach the needy. In doing so, they made news. In Rotary, new leaders work for about 36 months before their tenure, getting prepared. Could this be lesson to political leaders in Nigeria?
They considered women giving birth at high risk, those without water, etc? “So, we found a way.” She noted that Covid came to destroy opportunities but ended up creating new ones such as virtual lectures by topmost resource persons around the world. With this, the district still delivered on their key areas of water/sanitation, mother/ child health, peace/conflict resolution, etc. “It is sad that kids still study sitting on the floor. Mothers give birth with lanterns as source of light. Buckets of water instead of running water are still used to attend to childbirth.”
In her feed a family programme in communities, she said 10 million mouths were fed. She said many Rotations have lost their jobs. Many CEOS have become jobless which led to many hungry mouths everywhere. She said the 112 clubs under the district have carried on the task of feeding many more families and mouths.
She explained that the district leadership converted the funds meant for social functions and the inauguration event to feed hungry mouth. Rotary International also gave funds to the district while individuals contributed steadily to help feed more mouths. Food packs containing rice, beans, tomato, etc, were handed to families and individuals, she said.
Major admitted that the Rotary Foundation Fund is dwindling.
She described her group as ‘Team Transformers’, adding that the team before them led by Nze Anizor was known as ‘Team Innovation’. The upcoming annual conference is expected to be a give back conference; a kind of helping the helpers. “It is to foster friendship, it’s to create knowledge base. Top speakers such as Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) president, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, the immediate past Director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, and some others would do justice to various topics concerning the disrupted economy.”
Heads of financing organisations such as BOI, CBN, BOA, NEXIM, etc, are said to be billed to handhold members to understand how to start or build their businesses and what to do in a depressed economy, plus what to do as the African Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) comes on stream and what to do in a non-oil export era. They would look at how to access financing, how to access other forms of support, foreign markets, etc.
In his intervention, Anizor said a Rotarian is someone who does not just talk change but causes it. If there is darkness in a room, he finds light instead of merely blaming NEPA. He also regretted that children still sit on the floor to study in most Niger Delta cities.
He harped on the criticality of micro credits and how little amounts help to transform many homes. He also confirmed the hostility that Rotarians face going about helping people who rather think they are government people giving so little while collecting so much from the government. “Sometimes, we have faced threats. A principal turned off water provided in the school by Rotary during the time of his predecessor.
Reason, she sells pure water. Another principal confiscated N75,000 award (cheque) issued his student. We had to stop the cheque at the bank and gave cash to the boy and his father without making any issue with the principal to avoid victimizing the student.”