The GoodNews Mission
The Beginnings.
Irawo, a local community in western Nigeria is, like many others, facing numerous difficulties poor infrastructure, planning and neglect have led to wide-spread poverty. Using our links to this community we are aiming to change this gradually so that the community is better able to provide for itself and make use of resources, both human and natural.
We started with the most obvious and immediate problems facing the Irawo Baptist Primary, with around 250 students and 20 teachers. Prior to our intervention in 2011, the school had insufficient desks and chairs, no books, no electricity, running water or toilets.
Having worked and provided ongoing support for the community through the primary school we now, strongly believe that we can bring greater impact by building a mission centre in the heart of community.
Water and Electricity
Water Project
The Irawo community continue to benefit from the provision of clean drinking water following the success of the solar powered bore hole project which was installed in February 2018. Unfortunately, following a thunder strike late 2019 causing damage to the equipment, use of the facility was suspended for a few months pending installation of a lightening protector and replacement of the batteries.
Fortunately, these issues were resolved in 2020 following lifting of restrictions in the local area and both the school and community are again, able to have access to clean water due to your kindness and generosity.
School Provisions
Empowering the Next Generation
The GoodNews Mission have continued providing educational and sporting facilities for learning with resulting growth in development potential and numbers attending school.
Cardigans have reached the children again in 2021 to keep them warm in the winter months. The Cardigan project started November 2020 and was partly sponsored by a single major donor. This involved a local sewing mistress to make 260 cardigans for the children.
Having seen the impact on the children in the baptist school, provision has been made for desks and support to a second school in the district.
School Meals
Feeding Body and Mind
Free School Meals started formally in September 2019 with the start of the school term following a trial run in the summer. This initiative has proved to be a huge humanitarian success in solving hunger problem with kids from disadvantage backgrounds.
Consequently, this has resulted in an increase in the intake of pupils of the school by the beginning of term in January 2020 with the number of pupils being fed rising from 115 at the start of the school year to almost 150 within four months.
Words from the heart
Free School Meals: “The food is well known for having ingredient of high quality, and the food serviced by the food vendor measured the quantity it deserved. More so, the parents and the pupils were so happy about the programme due to the fact that it assists both the pupils and parent’s financially. The programme even makes the pupils more committed to their studies.
In conclusion, the programme was a successfully one in the sense that it make’s the pupils to be more interested in coming to school. The pupils fully participate in class work more than before. The pupils even enjoyed the food and we have seen the impact in their life.
Christmas Event
Take Away Christmas 2020
The year ended with what has become an annual Christmas event for the pupils just before the December 2020 holidays.
The usual nativity activities were put up by the students but this time it was without a sit-down meal, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Instead, each pupil had their Christmas dinner served as take away.
Covid 19 Response
Helping more than 140 vulnerable individuals and families.
As the COVID-19 pandemic went global, our attention was brought to a number elderly people and families who were struggling to make ends meet. In conjunction with some of our local partners and thanks to one of our major donors, we were able to respond to this need by providing a one-off financial assistance to over 140 individuals and families identified as severely vulnerable.
We received several telephone calls expressing their appreciation and gratitude and to what difference this made in the difficult times.
Mission Building
The plan is for the centre to :-
Encourage small enterprise: by providing shared farming equipment and/or community kitchen,
Support children in their learning development: through delivering free school meals, providing free access to IT and library facilities,
Support the community: through provision of basic health care facilities,
Provide a training/conference facility.
A place for Christian retreat.