From Taiwo Oluwadare, Ibadan
the Inner Wheels Club of Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State, installed Dr. (Mrs.) Sereime Adah, as its new president recently. Apart from Adah, executive members of the club were also inaugurated for 2017/2018.
International Inner Wheels was founded as a movement by Mrs. Margarette Golding, a nurse, businesswoman and wife of Manchester Rotarian in 1924. The objectives of the club include fostering friendship and offering charitable services, especially to female folks.
Adah, in her acceptance speech, thanked members for conferring on her the leadership to steer the ship of the club, saying the objective of the club is to promote true friendship, encourage ideals of personal service and foster international understanding, that she will leave a lasting legacy to unfold plans for the club.
According to her, the club would during her tenure, partner with two orphanage homes in Ibadan. The thrust of the partnership would be donations of goods to the homes as well as counselling sessions for the orphans and other stakeholders. She explained that the club would train and equip six young persons in fashion designing and hair dressing, adding that secondary school girls would also be trained in snack production and baking.
Her administration would on yearly basis donate some crucial and necessary items to the Welfare Department of the University College Hospital (UCH) and others. She appealed to kind-hearted Nigerians to join the club in sponsoring the projects that would be executed during her tenure.
Former registrar, University of Ibadan, Mrs. Moji Ladipo, the guest speaker, said: “In giving to each other, you build true friendship, which endures through time. It leaves a lasting legacy of peace and understanding, social cohesion, justice and equity in a world that is full of hatred and injustice.”
She noted that the club, in the past, believed in permanent structures like bus stops, public convenience and boreholes, which are actually the duty of government at different levels. He added that the club disembarked on erecting permanent structures because many of the projects became disused or were taken over by unintended users as there was no plan for maintenance and continuity:
“This is the reason the club embarked on projects like polio eradication or prevention of blindness programmes, which have given qualitative life to the future generation.” She noted that the club, as a female organisation, must emphasise its service to the girl child because “the future of mankind is in the hands of mothers.
“They are the bedrock of the family, the first teacher of the children, the nurturer who defines in a large way, the attitude, the character and beliefs of their children and we therefore must invest time, resources and energy in the girl child.”
Ladipo remarked that when the club committed its knowledge and resources to good causes, invest in the individuals around them, and love each other in the true sense of committed friendship, meaningful difference would be made and lasting legacy would be left behind.
The immediate past president of the club, Mrs. Folake Fawewa, said the focus of the club is to help the underprivileged in the society and promote friendship. She urged the members to be more focused towards discharging their duty of helping the vulnerable around them, so as to make the society a better place to live.