By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Two students of Queen of Rosary Secondary School (QRC) Onitsha, Onitsha North Local Government Area, Anambra Sta like is GNUte, Miss Chidimma Okoye and Miss Basilia Elochukwu, have emerged as first and second positions winners of the grand finale of the 2022/2023 Anambra Arm Our Youths Health Campaign Schools Challenge.
The health quiz organised by
OCI Foundation International, a not-for-profit and internationally recognised organisation, in conjunction with Anambra State Post Primary Schools Service Commission (PPSSC), had participants drawn from about 265 public secondary schools from six educational zones in Anambra State.
The programme, it was learnt, was designed to enhance engagements with the OCI Foundation's Arm Our Youths (Aroy), health campaign,an anticancer programme endorsed by the USA's Harvard Medical School and World Health Organization.
Speaking at the occasion, the Founder and President of OCI International, Dr Chris Ifediora, explained that the programme would soon become a national campaign so as to ensure that all parts of Nigeria benefits from it overwhelming impact.
Ifediora, represented by Barrister Vivian Obinwa, noted that contestants for the 2022/2023 edition were drawn from the six educational zones of Anambra State, in order to sustain the foundation's achievements since three years ago during which teachings against breast and cervical cancers were introduced into the regular curriculum of all Senior secondary schools.
He further disclosed that the foundation has already begun to inspire similar anti-cancer contests by other NGOs in Nigeria even as they have initiated a bill waiting for presidential assent to become a national event just as they had approached the African Union to make it a continental project.
He added, "This consolidates the history that we, the OCI Foundation, made three and half years ago, when, on October the 10th, 2019, we delivered on our promise to ensure that
teachings against breast and cervical cancers were introduced into the regular curriculum of all Senior Secondary Schools across Anambra State.
" Today’s event not only celebrates the successes we have had on this project over these years, but also rewards the students, teachers, and schools that have steadfastly adhered to, and excelled in,
those teachings.
The “Anambra Arm Our Youths Health Campaign Schools Challenge”, otherwise known as the Anambra AHCSC, is a statewide quiz competition designed to enhance engagements with the
OCI Foundation’s “Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign”, an anti-cancer programme endorsed by the USA’s Harvard Medical School and the World Health Organisation.
"The AHCSC has turned out to be an exciting, engaging, and inspiring quiz contest that sees our young ones in all the 265 public Senior Secondary Schools of this great State, participate in a healthy contest. We have to stress that it is not an academic exercise or a test of intelligence. It simply aims to ensure engagement with the ArOY Health
Campaign.
"We, therefore, urge the PPSSC, the State Education Commissioner, and the
Governor of Anambra State, to help get this done, so that privately-owned schools can also become part of this contest from 2024.
"A national version of the “Arm Our Youths Health Campaign Schools Challenge” will be introduced by 2025, when, we believe, the program would have been successfully rolled out in all parts of Nigeria. All Nigerian Senior Secondary Schools, along with all Colleges of Education in the country, will soon have the OCI Foundation’s ArOY Health Anti-
Cancer Campaign, as part of their programs.
"This has become possible as an OCI Foundation -initiated legislative bill seeking to make the teachings compulsory in Nigeria, has just been
passed by both chambers of the Nigerian National Assembly. That was by the 9th Assembly, and the Bill is currently awaiting Presidential Assent. "
Also speaking, the Chairman of the occasion, Lady Joy Ulasi, revealed that in the next academic session issues of cervical and breast cancers would be taught in all secondary schools in the state so that issues of such cancers will become a thing of the past.
In a vote of thanks, the Domestic Liaison officer of the foundation,Mrs Imelda Emeka, recalled how the competition began, challenges encountered and appreciated God and all that made event happen.
Presentation of prizes, welcome songs,dance drama formed the highpoints of the competition.
Speaking in an interview, the winners of the quiz competition, Miss Chidimma Okoye and Basilia Elochukwu expressed satisfaction over the outcome, assuring that they would not only utilised the knowledge gathered about cancer but to also enlighten others around them.