Ilora Community Resource Centre

The Ilora Community Resource Centre is located at No. 5, First Baptist Church Cemetery Road, Oke-Gege Ilora, Oyo State, Nigeria. It is the former family house of the late Chief Stephen Titilola Ajayi and Mrs Ruth Folorunsho Ajayi of Abese compound, Ilora.

Africa Rural Interventions Initiative, which was registered as an NGO in 2018, worked collaboratively with the Ajayi family to adopt and convert the private property into the Resource Center now available for public use since the 5th February 2021.

The first phase of the rehabilitation process was facilitated was partly achieved through the crowdfunding initiative spearheaded by Oladapo Ajayi (Co-founder Africa-RII), Valerie Gruber and Timo Gerhadt (find the link here: https://gofund.me/d05f46a7) in August 2020. By December 2020, the sum of 1939 Euros was realized through crowdfunding. In addition, the Katolische Landjugendbewegung Dachau (KLJB) based in Germany also donated the sum of 500 Euros towards the realization of the project.

Although the resource centre is yet to operate at full capacity as envisioned, it has a functioning library component utilized primary and secondary school students. The operation of the library is supervised by a board comprising of teachers in Ilora community, volunteer staffs, representative of the Ilora development association, a member of Chief S.T Ajayi’s family and a member of Africa-RII. In the first year, the library records an average of 25 -30 users on weekdays and peak periods, and 5-10 users on weekends or holidays. However, this number has since increased since the beginning of 2022 to 35-50 library users on a daily average.

The  Community Resource Centre is conceived to serve as:

  • A reading and book lending space
  • A skills acquisition centre with a mentorship space for secondary school students, youths and guests in Ilora community.
  • A safe space and exchange platform for women, children and youths exposed to or victims of structural violence.

 

The library component is running 5 days a week and at weekends (on re-request).

 The daily operation is currently supported by 4 staff: ( two librarians, a facility manager, a cleaner and a night security personnel). Other supporting staff are members of the National Youth and Service Corps (Graduates of different fields) – they are in residence to support the library users and serve as instructors and mentors.

What we are yet to achieve but plan to do:

  1. The facility’s roof infrastructure was designed in the early 1980s; it is an old construction model with an extremely flat surface, resulting in high retention and a high volume of rainwater. It is expensive to maintain and expires too early. We seek help towards remodelling the roof to a modern-elevated and environmentally friendly roof model.
  2. A solar panel project for the centre. This aligns with our goal and culture of sustainability and provides an affordable energy supply to the resource center.
  3. we intend to equip the community centre towards digitalisation and space to improve computer literacy and technology knowledge in the community.
  4. Provision of learning aid materials (such as Projectors) and installation of internet services.
  5. Youth-friendly sports/ games materials (chess, table tennis, pool game board, soccer table game)
  6. Perimeter fencing of the front area of the property for effective space usage and protection from random animal/people invaders, plus further security measures.
  7. Set up a multi-purpose- convertible space for training & skill acquisition spaces targeted at teenagers and youths in need of such skills.
  8. More Book acquisition for the library.

Mr. Olasunkanmi Ogunmola (Facility Manager)

He is an Architect and farmer in Ilora

Mrs. Victoria Akinola: Cleaning services

Mrs. Victoria Akinola 

Cleaning service

Resource Center Gallery