The current economic crisis in Nigeria has made Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care/Home depend heavily on individual and non-governmental organizations for resources to fund their operations.
The home, which is currently experiencing a shortage of staff due to the reduction of support from the Lagos State Government, had to engage temporary staff to support the 85 government workers in the facility.
In an interview with the Vice Principal Admin of the school, Mr Ajani I. A, he said that the mitigating factor for the poor remuneration is the sporadic financial support from the government, which is currently insufficient to meet the growing demands of the students, how much more paying temporary staff.
Hence, they have been relying heavily on donations from individuals, religious organizations and others, in order to meet the financial demands of the school and to pay stipends to their workers.
Ajani further said that the solution to the aforementioned problems besetting the care home/school would be more financial support from the government since they are the sole owner of the school after it was obtained from the founder, late Mrs. Modupe Cole.
He reiterated that the current number of full-time staff, which is eighty-five isn’t enough to cater for the needs of the four hundred and seventy-nine disabled people in their custody.
He thereafter pleaded with individuals and organizations for continuous assistance with either monetary donations, medical and or food items.
This article was written by Hannah Ogbodo, MSc Student of Mass Communication (2023/2024), University of Lagos, following the training on Disability Reporting facilitated by Blessing Oladunjoye, Publisher of BONews Service.