CSR: Firm Partners Rotary, NGO on Free Medical Outreach

James Sowole in Abeokuta

A private firm Green Fuels Nigeria Limited has partnered two non-governmental organisations, Indo Eye Care Foundation and Rotary Club of Palmgroove Estate, Lagos on medical outreach that offered over 200 people free eye treatment and other medical cases in Ogun community.

The initiative according to the company, was in pursuance of Green Fuels’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to its host community.

The company located at Ayeloja, a suburb of Abeokuta Township, noted that majority of the people in the environment, have been battling with healthcare management issues due to lack of financial where withal.

Speaking at the outreach, the Executive Director of Green Fuels, Mr. Dheerendra Singh Chauhan, stated that the company’s prioritises, the well-being of its host community and giving back to them is a major impact.

He said the company also believes that it is part of the community. 

Chauhan explained that the eye is part of the body where people don’t usually feel pains despite effects of its infection.

The executive director added that lack of awareness, lack of basic care, lack of access to doctors, particularly among the vulnerable, sometimes made minor issues on their sight to become bigger problems.

Some of the eye diseases highlighted by the company include, cataract, glaucoma, and other eye infections.

He said, “We believe that the eye is something where you don’t feel pain, but it is a very important organ. “Vision in both symbolic and literal meaning, is essential for human dignity, good life, quality and productivity. For a company, a vision is also very important. And for human beings, it is also very important. And lack of awareness, lack of basic care, lack of access to doctors, sometimes lead to bigger problems, be it cataract, be it glaucoma, and other issues.

“So here it’s an effort to provide that access, basic testing and provide the glasses where it is recommended by the doctors, or in some cases, advanced recommendations like cataract operations.

“The effort is not limited only to do this basic stuff, but also take it to the next level, which is, for example, some people need the cataract operation. So there is a camp happening in Lagos in December, which is not just a camp, it is where there will be cataract operation free of cost.

“That is why we partnered with Indo Eye Care Foundation, so that we just don’t start something and leave it in the middle without concluding it. So we have started this, and those who are recommended for the operation would have cataract operations free of cost in Lagos with Indo Eye Care Foundation, and that’s where we will take this thing further.

“Because, as Green Fuels Limited, we strongly believe that an organisation is measured not only by its business achievements, but also by how it impacts the lives of the people around, and this is our community. So we are partners. We are not only investors, we are partners to this community in their well-being.

“So this is also a major, important goal for our company to make sure that people around us are healthy and doing well”

Chauhan commended the leaders of the host community for their support, stating the turnout was encouraging.

Also speaking, the Administrative Manager for Indo Eye Care Foundation, Mrs. Oluwatosin Johnson, disclosed that Green Fuels facilitated the Eye Care outreach to the Ogun community with the support of Indo Eye Care.

She maintained that, though it has been part of the company activities, adding that they are doing cataract and teregium surgery, and giving glasses to those who need them free of charge, all at the courtesy of Green Fuels. 

Johnson affirmed that those who need cataract and glaucoma surgery would be contacted for an operation in their Lagos office by December.

She said, “We understand the importance of the eye in the body, because there are people who are lame in their body and still doing one thing or the other, but when the eye is lost, you cannot do anything, even if you have the other parts of the body.”

She appealed to people to always seize the opportunity whenever there is free eye care, adding that there is no need for them to be afraid of getting themselves tested at a safe cost in the future. 

Corroborating, the general manager of human resources at Green Fuels Liquid Natural Gas, Otunba Bolaji Oyedeko, asserts that “a lot of people don’t really care much about their sight, which may be because of finances. So, we had a discussion with the leadership of this community on what their major need is, which turned out to be health care.

“We realised that a lot of people don’t really care much about their sight, so we had a discussion with the leadership of this community that we wish to come and have this eye camp with them by partnering with the organisation called Indo Eye Care Foundation from Lagos, which is an organisation that does things like this.”

He also disclosed that Green Fuels will kickstart school rehabilitation in the host community soon to continue its corporate social responsibility. 

“We already discussing with them,  now we can improve maybe some of their schools, most of the schools around there, they are dilapidated, and we feel we can do one or two things for them so that children can read on a very conducive environment, and there will be lots more, as we are discussing with the communities, because everything we are doing, we are doing conjunction with the leaders of the community, but we don’t want to do things that will not be of benefit to them”

Appreciating the initiative, the Baales of the communities Chief Sobowale Alani of Ayeloja and Chief Alao Fadipe Baale Iyana Ikereku, commended the efforts of disclosing that the community has over 5,000 people with different health challenges. 

They posited that healthcare empowerment has really done so much to lift the burden on the citizens of the communities.