by Gboyega Alaka,
AS part of its CSR activities, Ivory League of Progress, supported by Rotary Club of Victoria Garden City (VGC), recently donated 20 units of wheel chairs to Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria, Disabled Welfare Association of Nigeria and Regina Mundi Catholic Church.
The event, which was part of associations’ Independence Day Celebration, was an opportunity to reach out to the less privileged in the society.
In his opening remarks, President of Ivory League of Progress, Ivorian Tunde Thani, said the club, established in 1987, has always carried out CSR activities. He said the club’s establishment was borne out of its cardinal vision to identify indigent people in the society and strive to cater for their needs.
In his words, “We strive to cater for the needs of the people through provision of materials, advocacy and intervention over the years. We have supported associations like Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care and Treatment Home, Pacelli School of the Blind, Old People’s Homes and Initiative for Children and Women with Disabilities.”
Thani added that the club has come to identify with groups that are very important in the society but who are often overlooked due to their disabilities. He recognised that people with disabilities have a problem of mobility, which inevitably affects their socio-economic life, hence the donation of the wheel chairs to alleviate their daily challenges.
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In his words, “We believe that as we donate these wheelchairs to your Associations, it will improve your lives, total well-being and assist in your social and economic life.”
He enjoined the association to make proper use of the wheelchairs by ensuring that it is distributed to the physically challenged among them who are desperately in need of it.
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Thani also assured the beneficiaries that the donation will not be the last.
In his remarks, the immediate past president of Rotary Club of VGC, Mr. Yemi Fakayejo, stated that Ivory League of Progress and Rotary Club of VGC share the same vision, purpose and vision of touching the lives of the less privileged in the society. In his words, “When we see opportunities like this to touch lives, we strive to key into it. This is why Rotary Club of VGC is happy to partner with Ivory League of Progress to bring smiles to the faces of the less privileged in the society.”
Fakayejo also bemoaned the plight of physically challenged people in the society and enjoined the government and members of the public to come to their aid regularly. He appealed to government at both State and Federal levels, to always consider the physically challenged when planning for the environment.
He said government should also make a pathway for the physically challenged as done in developed countries of the world.
In his response to the donation, the National Chairman of Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obioha Ononogbu, thanked Ivory League of Progress and Rotary Club of VGC for the kind gesture. He said he wished that more corporate organisations can come to their aid occasionally. He also pleaded with government at all levels to consider the plight of less privileged people in the society, by including them in their annual and quarterly allocations.
This, he said, will go a long way to alleviate their plight.
