Irish Embassy Deputy Head Visits AUN’s Feed and Read Center

On May 17, the Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Ireland, Mr. Eoghan Mcswiney, was at AUN and visited the Feed and Read for Girls Center.

The literacy project is being co-sponsored by the Irish government.

The Deputy Ambassador who was visiting Adamawa State for the first time said he wanted to connect more with the reality of the situation on the ground, especially as it concerns the internally displaced people, as well the Feed and Read program. “I wanted to see the reality of the project for which we provided some of the seed funding. The project is now bigger than our funding allowed.”

Mr. Mcswiney said he is impressed with how the University has responded to the need to help vulnerable young people in its host community to become literate. “In the case of this particular project, most of these girls are not even in school all day. So, to tie literacy with nutrition is incredibly important and inspiring. They are very impressive and exciting young women and girls.”

The center opens five days a week and the tutors are volunteers who are mainly teachers and students of the AUN Academy.

The program’s Coordinator and Executive Director of AUN Schools, Mrs. Nkem Uzowulu, expressed satisfaction with how the program is meeting its goals and objectives. “They are only just disadvantaged; otherwise they are very intelligent children. You can see how they have transformed within just a few months.”

Mrs. Uzowulu also expressed concern over the increasing number of children who want to join their peers. The current number is 278, “yet they keep coming even as the intake capacity has been reached… as at the last count there were 163.”

The Center has organized and categorized the enrolled children into levels from one to four, in eight classes. One of the students in Level 4, Rejoice Awandi, said that she has learned how to count numbers, personal hygiene, table manners and that she likes short stories.

By Omorogbe Omorogiuwa