NYSC coordinator inaugurates wheelchair project, wants sustained community development efforts

The Coordinator NYSC Nasarawa state Abdullahi Ahmad Jikamshi recently inaugurated forty wheel chairs for physically challenged members of the Uke Community in Karshi Development Area of the state. 

The wheel chairs by secured for the beneficiaries by corps member Madugu Panam Amos, who partnered with a Jos based Non-Governmental Organisation, Beautiful Gates, which produces and gives out the wheel chairs free, to physically challenged persons.

Abdullahi Jikamshi commended the corps member’s initiative in carrying out a project that directly touched the lives of a vulnerable segment of the society, adding that the NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) Programme was specially  designed to take the Scheme’s contributions to, and galvanize development at the grassroots. He urged other corps members to emulate Madugu’s efforts by executing programmes and projects that would have positive impact on the lives of members of their host communities, particularly the indigent. He enjoined the beneficiaries to use the wheel chairs to improve the quality of their lives.

The Coordinator noted that Nigeria had been declared polio free, but urged parents to ensure that their children were duly vaccinated against childhood diseases, including polio, to reduce incidences of preventable physical disabilities.

Also speaking at event, the Chief Executive Officer of Beautiful Gates, the NGO that donated the wheel chairs to Madugu, Engr. Ayuba Gufwan, who is  also wheel chair bound, urged the beneficiaries not to see their physical disabilities as doom that would limit them to lives of begging for alms. He told that there was indeed, ability in disability, pointing out that with the facilitation of the wheel chairs, they could carry out many activities, including schooling, commercial activities and handicrafts, to empower themselves economically, and live meaningful lives. He promised to provide more wheel chairs for those who did not benefit at the event.

The Member representing Karshi at the Nasarawa State House Of Assembly, Honourable Mohammed Abdullahi who was represented at the event, pledged to give corps members within his constituency, the necessary support to carry out community enhancement projects.

The traditional ruler of the area, the Yakanaje of Uke,His Royal Highness, Alhaji Dr. Abdullahi Hassan who was represented by Hussein Danladi, the Chief of Kampani Community, commended the corps member’s efforts and thanked the NYSC for facilitating community development initiatives by corps members.

Other speakers at the occasion, included the Director of Personal Management of Karshi Development Area, the Principal of Government Secondary School, Karshi, the Keffi NYSC Zonal Office, Josephine Tende and the Karshi NYSC Local Government Inspector, Abraham Terver Amozua, various.