The Province of Nigeria — a beneficiary of the Vincentian Endowment Challenge (Patrimony Fund Project)–founded and operates St. Joseph’s Primary and De Paul Secondary Schools in Oraifite in southeastern Nigeria. The schools integrate the instruction of deaf and hearing-impaired students with students having full hearing in the same (inclusive) classrooms.
St. Vincent De Paul Society and students
One of the highlights of the month of February at the schools was the visit by the members of National Council of the Society of St. Vincent De Paul. The entourage included Bro. Lazarus Akuh of the national office, the metropolitan president, Bro John Obi, and central council president, Bro Jerome Madueke. The visit brought joy to the hearing impaired children as you can see in the picture. The visitors were simply amazed at the magnitude of work being done by the Vincentian Fathers at the school. It became an opportunity for them to reiterate their commitment to collaborate closely with the province in providing basic education to the deaf children.
Students break dancing
Another exciting moment here was on March 1st, 2014. It was the day of the biennial inter-house sports competition in the school. The excitement of the children was absolutely incredible. They looked amazing in the various colors of their houses. There were seven competing houses/colors viz: the white house, yellow house, blue house, purple house, green house, red house, and pink house. The sporting activities were: football, table tennis, volleyball, match past, relay races, sack race, and egg race. The high points of the competition were the break dance performance by the deaf students that entertained the crowd, and the handing over of the trophy to the winner: the pink house. The invited guests and parents went home satisfied and fulfilled such that the drizzling rain could not deter the watching crowd.