EY Strengthens Investment in Quality Education, Donates to Schools

Uchechukwu Nnaike

As part of activities marking the EY Charity Day tagged ‘Building a Better Working World’, Ernst &Young (EY) Nigeria recently donated items to some public schools and an orphanage in Lagos State to improve the lives of underprivileged members of the society.

The annual charity day, which has been on for six years, provides an opportunity for the entire staff and management to visit the benefitting organisations to inaugurate the items donated, as well as a visit to the orphanage.

The company visited Ilasan Junior and Senior Secondary School, Lekki, where it refurbished the science laboratories and donated more than 100 laboratory equipment; it also provided a water treatment plant that will supply water to the laboratories and the entire school. It also donated science laboratory equipment to Eko Akete Senior Secondary school, Lagos Island

The EY team also visited the Vigilant Heart Charitable Society Home where it donated foodstuffs and other items to support the organisation in caring for the vulnerable children, while it provided an inverter for Pacelli School for the Blind, Surulere, Lagos to ensure sustained power supply at the school.

According to the Managing Partner of EY, Mr. Henry Egbiki, the purpose of the company’s existence is to build a better working world, adding that it is not just about making profit, but by giving back and supporting communities around it.
He said despite the recession, the company still went on with the initiative because “this is a higher calling for us we believe it is something that we need to do and we sustain it.”

Asked how the organisation generated funds for the intervention, he said: “Everyone from the most junior staff to the most senior staff all contributed to make this happen because we believe in it; we get inspiration from it. And is the thing that gladdens our hearts that everybody has keyed into this project and we don’t just contribute money and items, you know we can just send it to them, but we want to associate with the people.

“We go to the orphanages we want to see the children, we want to associate with them; we want to feel what they feel, we want to see what they see; we want to see the environment in which they live, we want to see other areas that we can support them in future.”

Beyond the charity day, Egbiki announced that the staff of the company in their determination to improve the quality of education in the state, have volunteered to devote 40 hours of teaching every week starting from January 2017.
“Our people will go to secondary schools around us for 40 hours every week to teach especially compulsory subjects where students are not doing well for instance, English Language, mathematics and some of the core science subjects and we think this is good; this is how you can impact communities around you; this is the way you can support, we are supporting to at least strengthen the human capital development, as you know the index has been very low for our country.”

In terms of monitoring the projects, he said the team usually visits the benefitting schools every year to see that they are still functioning properly “and if there are gaps we ensure that we also intervene. So there is a monitoring process to ensure that there is sustainability and that the efforts that have been made are not made in vain.”

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