Family commissions foundation to help indigent students in Alayi
The Elendu family in Alayi, Bende local government area of Abia state, at the weekend, set aside N10 million to encourage and assist Alayi students who wish to pursue their educational career up to PhD level.
This gesture came during the commissioning ceremony of the Bernard and Rose Elendu memorial library, Alayi, by the family.
A member of the family and the initiator of the project, Mazi Eugene Elendu, used the occasion to urge parents to invest in education, insisting that a child that is well educated has hope of a brighter future, and called on well-meaning Nigerians to help indigent students, acquire standard education.
He said he named the library after his late parents: Bernard and Rose Elendu, to immortalize them, describing his parents as people who laboured to train their children. He also said that library the project started in 2007 and was completed on time but the commissioning delayed due to circumstances beyond the family’s control.
Mazi Elendu said he built the library to promote education in Alayi community, Bende LGA and Abia North in general, and urged the state government to enter into Public Private Partnership with the community, for proper maintenance and sustenance of the library.
Also speaking, the chairman of Bende LGA, Chief Gabriel Okereke Elendu, described the library as a dream come true and called on relevant examination bodies in the state to indicate their interest as the library can be used for CBT center for future exams.
Chief Elendu who said the library will accommodate schools around the area, wished that his parents were alive to witness the ceremony.
The Chairman of the occasion, Chief Christopher Chime Ogbodo said reading with understanding and enjoyment is so important in education if Nigerians want to be truly globally competitive.
He said the library offers a wealth of opportunity to Alayi children, to take advantage of all that modern education has in store, and called on all different sectors of Alayi community and society to partner with the monumental gesture by the Elendu family in making the library a reality.
Chief Ogbodo said with the library, the Elendu family has made a huge investment into the future of Alayi children today and for the foreseeable future, pointing out that libraries are essential to the promotion of reading and almost critical to the improvement of literacy.
He commended Mr. and Mrs. Eugene and Oriaku Elendu, who tirelessly were determined to immortalize the aspirations and desires of “Principal” Bernard and Rose Elendu, in the form of the “Bernard and Rose Elendu Memorial Library.”
