The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has embarked on massive stakeholder education/sensitisation campaign on electricity safety in schools within the South-East its franchise area.
Mr Emeka Ezeh, the Head of Corporate Communications, EEDC, on Thursday said that the campaign was part of the company’s efforts to entrench the right knowledge and orientation in the public space.
Ezeh spoke when a team from EEDC visited the Lady Ibiam Girls Secondary School, Enugu, to engage the students.
“The campaign is aimed at orientating school children who are seen as the “leaders of tomorrow”, at the early stage of their lives, on electrical safety and electricity distribution operations.
“These children are witnesses to illegal activities going on within their environment on electrical installations, and are already growing up, seeing these illegalities as normal.
“As a result of this, our organisation decided to adopt the approach of “training up a child in the way he/she should go, so that when he/she grows, he/she will never depart from it.
“We need to train and educate our children in the right direction on the use of electricity, especially for their safety anywhere they are,” he said.
Ezeh said that the campaign was an avenue for the children to understand how the electricity they make use of works and how it is generated and transmitted.
“They are meant to understand the dos and don’ts, and some of the reasons why there are power outages in their homes and neighbourhoods,’’ he said.
Ezeh said that EEDC embarks on the campaign annually, though the activity was greatly affected last year due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant lockdown measures.
“So far, the campaign train has visited Trans-Ekulu Girls Secondary School, Enugu; National Grammar School Nike, Enugu; Government Secondary School, Enugu; and Government Technical School, Enugu.
“Uwani Secondary School, Uwani; New Haven Secondary School and Citadel Schools, Maryland, Enugu, with many other schools yet to be visited,” he said.
On the electricity safety campaign at Lady Ibiam Girls Secondary School, Enugu, the students and their teachers were enthusiastic and exhibited much interest in the new knowledge offered them.
One of the students, Miss Chioma Anike, shared her experience of severe electric shocks while carrying out chores or trying to change-over supply in her home.
Anike said that with the appropriate orientation received in the campaign, she would better protect herself from these hazardous conditions which she had been exposed to in error.
Another student, Obinna Nnam, said: “We are positively impacted today.
“We are optimistic that with this knowledge, electrical accidents in homes and outside the homes will be drastically reduced, if not eliminated,” he said. (NAN)
