Giwa Foundation with a heart of gold

I first heard of the Giwa Foundation some days ago in a programme on the BBC Hausa Service. I was fascinated by the story of the foundation which was established over twenty years ago by a Kano-based businessman, Bala Mohammed Getso, to help the needy acquire educational qualifications that would help them get on in life. […]

I first heard of the Giwa Foundation some days ago in a programme on the BBC Hausa Service. I was fascinated by the story of the foundation which was established over twenty years ago by a Kano-based businessman, Bala Mohammed Getso, to help the needy acquire educational qualifications that would help them get on in life. He started small by assisting students to buy JAMB forms, then he built schools in the small town of Getso and later expanded to nearby Kutama and is now covering Gwarzo their local government headquarters and even Kano city itself. The humanitarian gestures also extend to the provision of water supply to Getso town and the building of an eye clinic ward within the Gwarzo General Hospital.

It is the kind of heartwarming story one loves to hear about the well-to-do individuals taking the bull by the horns to do things for their communities that their governments have failed to render. These kinds of community services are sorely needed, particularly in the north where the tradition of individuals or communities doing things for themselves is glaringly lacking. In the southern parts of the country, it has been an old tradition for communities to band together for their development. Well-to-do persons in most southern communities have always deemed it their duty to be seen to do things for the advancement of their communities.

Here in the north, there is too much dependence on the government. Most northern communities rely on the government to provide educational facilities for their children, water, and health facilities.  That’s why in my perspective efforts by these long-ranger individuals in the north are always worthy of celebration. It was in that regard that when I got the invitation to visit Getso, Kutama and Gwarzo and see things for myself, I did not hesitate to accept. The Gwarzo side of Kano is probably the only part of the state that I haven’t seen. Getso is about 80 kilometers away from Kano through Gwarzo.

The journey to Gwarzo on that fine Tuesday morning last week was uneventful, despite the inconvenience of the ongoing dualization of the road. Like many road constructions ongoing in this part of the country, this one also seems to have come unhinged. In sooth, one can say that the road construction contract is abandoned. The consolation, however, is that the farmlands all the way look lush and green. This is a good indication of a bountiful harvest to come as one can observe fleeting lines of heavily loaded corn stalks dancing to the harmattan winds in the farms.

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It was at Gwarzo that we took the road to Getso, a short drive away. At Getso, we spent most of the afternoon trudging from one school to the other all built and run by the Giwa Foundation. We visited three schools in full session, all built to standard, filled with students and reasonably equipped. All the schools are equipped with a solar borehole. There are about 1000 students each in all the schools we visited. We had chats with the principals and the teachers and came away with the impression that those schools are some of the best you can find in the rural areas of Kano State.

Before leaving Getso we went around to view the borehole that the Giwa Foundation is running for the town. The borehole is also solar and is equipped with a gigantic tank. The pipes from the tank are reticulated to go around a large part of the town and you can see children and women busy carrying water from the standing pipes to their homes.

We left for Gwarzo but stopped at Kutama where one of the Giwa Foundation secondary schools is situated. Like the others, it is also well-equipped complete with a solar borehole. What is remarkable about this secondary school is that it is the only one in Kutama and is said to be one of the best performing in Gwarzo Local Government Area. At Gwarzo we drove to the General Hospital to view the building for the eye clinic being donated by the Giwa Foundation. The building is already completed just awaiting equipment.

During the journey back to Kano we discussed his motivation for this gesture to his community considering that he’s using his hard-earned funds. Bala Getso told me that his motives were entirely altruistic. He told me of the hardship he endured as a kid when he had to walk every morning to far out of Getso to fetch water before preparing for school. He was lucky as fortune smiled on him when in the mid-1960s he got admission into Government College Keffi, then one of the leading secondary schools in the north. We were classmates. He told me that the Giwa Foundation also pays for the JAMB, and NECO forms for the students in their schools, and for other needy students from all parts of the state that approach them for help.

One of the best contributions one can give most rural communities in the north is to provide educational infrastructure and water. This is what I found the Giwa Foundation to be doing in Getso, Kutama and Gwarzo and I hope the story will prick the conscience of many others to emulate them.