By Ale Omotayo Henry
“Gbogi Emmanuel Foundation has been in the fore run of community development activities including donating books and other learning materials to school children in the community.
Celebrating the 2021 Ikori new Yam Festival, GEF took the advantage of the cultural celebration to reach out to all the less privileged in entire Iwaro Oka region. During the visit, the Team GEF distributed detergents and all kinds of washing materials and household utilities to the people in the community
Celebrated in the month of August every year, the renowned festival is as old as the tradition in the Iwaro Oka land.
They are quite notable communities in Nigeria where new yam festival is a very big festival, Iwaro Oka is one of them.
According to tradition, it is unacceptable for the community member to eat new yam before the celebration. This festival also serves as a period to thank the gods for a bountiful harvest and also ask for abundant rains for the next planting season. It is a common practice for indigenes of the town to return home to celebrate, meet their family members and also an opportunity to meet their age group.
In modern times, the festival does not only provide a platform to call home sons and daughters abroad to renew and reaffirm the bond of brotherhood, it also brings to mind a sense of belonging and to plan for community development. Gbogi Emmanuel Foundation has been in the fore run of community development activities including donating books and other learning materials to school children in the community. Events like this has always served as avenues of reaching out to every member of the community.
