BY: VITALIS UGOH, Calabar
Rotarian Antigha Akabom Ita, has been installed as the 35th President of Rotary Club of Hll-Top Calabar for the 2020/2021 year and promised to execute 35 projects during the Rotary year.
He said that his administration will be embarking on 35 projects with particular emphasis on areas of focus such as disease prevention and treatment.
Ita who disclosed this at the weekend while answering questions from media men at the ceremony, said this is so as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of our plans is to donate Personal protective equipments (PPEs) and other medical supplies to government hospital’s and primary healthcare centres.
According to him, “this is one of the key projects under the disease prevention treatment program while the other is maternal and Child health. We are going to be giving delivery kits to expectant mothers in some of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and of course in other rural areas where some of these women cannot afford the kits and they are expecting their babies.”
Also, he said, “Basic education and Literacy is another area that will be given attention. we are going to be giving out some scholarship to Orphans in particular. This Year we have decided to go to the orphans. There are orphans who need some educational support as soon as schools soon resume”.
The Club under his watch will carry out projects in the area of community economic development. Meanwhile, he said, “we have done one today by empowering 35 women in our society . We have given Rotary business support to 35 women to support their .businesses. More will be coming in form of skill acquisition training to other person’s and other women who needs to learn one trade or two to be able to sustain their livelihood”.
A cross section of; members and special guests of honour at the ceremony
He said in a nutshell those are some of the key projects and others that we shall embark upon during this 2020/2021 Rotary year.
On the issue of security, he said, one of Rotary’s focus is peace building and conflict resolution. What we do in this area of focus is to address some of the worrying issues that may arise in communities. We also address the issue of security in the urban centres and ensure that every citizen of our country is safe.
Ita, therefore noted that on the issue of security the Club is ready to partner with some organisations of peace advocacy . We will also be thinking of doing a town hall program this year where we will call community / youth leaders together especially the warring communities to discuss a lasting solutions to these lingering problems”.
“We shall invite the youth leaders who are always perpetrators of these crisis, invite the security agencies and of course the media will be partners in this project. This will come up in February next year because that is our World Peace understanding month in Rotary, he added”.
“Security is an ongoing concern, we are doing our best to sensitise people on the need to embrace peace and also to avoid violence and vices that will cause problem to the society, Ita said”.
The highlights of the installation includes, induction of new members, Board of directors, conferment of awards/fund raising for service projects.
He later carried out his first assignment of inducting the immediate past president into the college of presidents Mrs Glory Ebenso.
Earlier, the immediate past president Rotarian Glory Eno Ebenso thanked all members for the encouragement and support she got from them which made her to succeed during her tenure as president.
The object of Rotary “is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster”.
He enumerated benefits of being a Rotarian to include, professional networking, service opportunities, international awareness, friendship, good citizenship and family foundation.
Others are, “entertainment, ethical environment leadership development and diversity in membership”.
Rotarian Ita is the managing director Of Bloomfilled integrated Services and a member of Rotary Club of Hill-Top Calabar since February 1,2012.
He is an alumnus of both the University of Calabar and Lagos. He has written several articles both academic and non academic. Ita is married to Barrister Deborah Antigha Akabom-ita.
Eight new persons were inducted as part of the ceremony.
Guests were entertained with cultural dance displays.
