How corporate organisations can save lives
Today, however, the Foundation appears to have expanded its scope to providing occasional support for individuals who may be facing peculiarly challenging circumstances. A few years ago, it came to the rescue of a six-year-old boy whose two hands had been chopped off with a machete by a relative. The company’s officials had watched the […]
Today, however, the Foundation appears to have expanded its scope to providing occasional support for individuals who may be facing peculiarly challenging circumstances.
A few years ago, it came to the rescue of a six-year-old boy whose two hands had been chopped off with a machete by a relative. The company’s officials had watched the pathetic plight of the boy as relayed on television and thereafter swung into action. The company got in touch with the boy’s parents and in the long run facilitated a trip overseas where he got surgical treatment and very advanced prosthesis (artificial limbs) in place of the severed ones. It was a happy and smiling face that encountered his schoolmates when this young man returned from overseas. In place of the stubs which existed where his real hands had been were brand new artificial hands with which he had been trained to execute several different tasks including writing. As a growing boy, in a short while the young man is expected to outgrow the prosthesis, but the MTN Foundation has assured that it will continue to sponsor such replacements, such that the young man can grow up as an adult and be better placed in a position to truly fulfill his potential.
Elsewhere, MTN has also borne the cost of sponsoring children with heart defects overseas for treatment. In at least eight instances in the recent past children with the heart defect commonly known as “hole in the heart” have had corrective surgeries overseas, on the full sponsorship of MTN. Interestingly in each of these cases, the surgeries have been successful and the children have returned to the warm embrace of their families to continue their lives in much healthier fashion than hitherto.
In the last few years, the company has also been increasingly involved in the activities of orphanages across the country. Orphanages in Nigeria often go through difficulties in sourcing for funds for sustenance. The extent of this problem varies from one orphanage to another, with some well-known orphanages located in key urban cities like Lagos more advantaged than others. In many orphanages across the country, however, there is a perpetual daily struggle to keep children fed, clothed and availed of basic necessities.
On its growing disposition towards the humanitarian, MTN executives explain that this shift is informed by the realities in the society. “We want to continue to play a critical role in such key sectors as education, healthcare and economic empowerment, working through specialized NGOs to produce sustainable results”, says Wale Goodluck the company’s Corporate Services Executive in one of his media outings.
Of late the company through its Foundation has almost concluded arrangements to make mammography machines available to public hospitals across the country. Mammography machines are equipment that are used in detecting cancerous cells in a woman’s breasts. Early detection, it is hoped, will enable many more women seek treatment on time. In this plan for which beneficiary public health institutions have already been identified, one mammography machine will be made available to one public hospital in each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
Kidney problems have also become increasingly rampant across Nigeria, putting pressure on the few hospitals which have relevant kidney disease management equipment. Again, it is in the light of the growing prevalence of this problem that MTN via its foundation is concluding arrangements to make available to public hospitals in each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, two hemodialysis machines. Such equipment will help mitigate the pressures that sufferers of kidney disease especially those at the bottom of the social pyramid who are unable to afford specialist private care, face.
MTN’s gradual shift towards increasing humanitarianism has continued to attract the commendation of the extended chains of Nigerians who have benefitted from its gestures. From the little boy who has since regained use of his hands by courtesy of the artificial limbs which MTN has gone to great lengths to provide; to the children who have had their hearts regain full functionality; to the inmates of the obscure orphanages located in some of the more remote parts of our country, the story is the same: It is that of thanks and appreciation by family members, friends and members of the health community.
It’s a huge burden, no doubt, that MTN carries as industry leader. The blessings and support of the many who are impacted upon by its humanitarian initiatives, no doubt, should help it sustain this leadership well into the future to avail many more Nigerians in dire need, of vital support.
Deke is of XLR8, Lagos.