It started with a tweet. A Lagos State University student and Twitter user, Oduala Olorunrinu has successfully united and galvanized over 2,000 “lazy” Nigerian youths into action by simply taking up the baton of alleviating the needs of the people.
This is interesting because she is a 300-level student of Chemistry from a poor home who feels youths can also take responsibility against the spread of the pandemic. She has refused to wait on the government like others and decided to help sensitize Nigerians with a single tweet.
The tweet read “I am a chemist. I can help in making Hand Sanitizers so we can distribute to people. All we need is 1. Isopropyl alcohol 2. Glycerol 3. H202 4. Distilled water 5. Spray bottles. Let’s get a company to donate ethanol. Some people can’t afford hand sanitizers #FightCOVID19” on the 23rd of March, 2020.
This was very thoughtful, considering that there has been a huge increase in the price of hand sanitizers of over 50% since the pronouncement of the pandemic.
She started with an initial target of 10,000 hand sanitizers which has long being exceeded.
The journey from Material procurement, scarcity and hike in price of sanitizer bottles, movement over 50 kilometers everyday during the lockdown to produce sanitizers, delivery to states under lockdown, funding and distribution to different states in Nigeria with no personal car and little assistance is a question we should be asking Miss Olorunrinu despite the lockdown as it’s baffling and surprising that such a young individual could take such a daunting task and be determined to execute it without any support from the Nigerian government.
With
Petty Donations From Well-Meaning Nigerians on Twitter, Miss Olorunrinu
popularly known as “Chemical Sister” started this daunting task of
providing as many as possible free hand sanitizers for the populous
black nation of almost 200 million people in spite of the lockdown. This
birthed a movement with the hashtag #OperationSanitize. Al
Youths all over the nation have taken this initiative to help raise public awareness about the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective areas while sensitizing on the preventive measures. This is but one of the many goals of her movement. The main goals are the distribution of free hand sanitizers, food and proper enlightenment on good hygiene to the uneducated, educated, old, vulnerable and young and the importance of social distancing along with obeying government health officials.
National unity is portrayed as most of the messages used or displayed in the cause of this operation are being translated into the many ethnic languages in Nigeria carrying almost every citizen along.
As of the time of filing this report, Miss Olorunrinu has been able to get over 20,000 hand sanitizers to over 7 states in Nigeria mainly, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Benue, Abuja, including Lagos, the epicenter of the COVID19 virus in Nigeria and she is still producing more.
For more information on the project, you can check the hashtag #OperationSanitize on Twitter, or check her personal handles @rinudear or @savvyrinu.
Call the convener on 07035110228, 07017553964 or email her @savvyrinu@gmail.com.
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