EY Reaches Out to Less Privilege Children

Uchechukwu Nnaike

As part of their annual corporate social responsibility initiative tagged ‘EY Charity Day’, staff of Ernst & Young, Lagos recently visited an orphanage and a home of children with disabilities to give back to their host communities.

Apart from the funds set aside for the food stuffs, toiletries and other items, the staff also sacrifice their time by going all out to visit the beneficiaries. This year’s beneficiaries were the Arrow of God Orphanage, Lekki and the Children’s Development Centre, Surulere.

Speaking during the visit, the Deputy Regional Managing Partner, Mr. Dayo Babatunde, said the company focuses on building a better working world “and when we plough back to the community, it is like creating a better world for people, particularly the less privilege and we believe that it is better to sleep well than to eat well. So as you are making the little money, you must be able and ready to plough back so that everybody can sleep well rather than you eating well and not being able to sleep well because when some segments of the economy are not sleeping it will affect you.”

On the importance of reaching out to the less privilege in the society, he said: “We are represented in 170 countries EY has been around in this country for well over 50 years and we pull together well over 450 professional accountants. To us it is a thing of joy, it shows that we identify with the community. We believe we must plough back to the community because it is no use taking from the community without ploughing back. So when you take and you plough back it makes a better working world.”

Babatunde said the company also helps schools through an initiative known as ‘Teaching Assistance’. “What we do here is we pull some of our professionals together and disperse them to schools to be training them free of charge from the freewill window we don’t go through the commercial window. We also visit schools, we sink boreholes and equip laboratories, among others to make life better for all of us.”

Also speaking, the Head of Talents for EY West Africa, Mrs. Jane Onobhayedo, said the donation helps to bring the company’s purpose alive, which is to build a better working world.

“Every year we set this day apart to interact with the communities around us. We have chosen for some years now to touch base with the less privilege in the orphanage homes, to touch base with special needs children and to support schools. We have an educational initiative where we help secondary schools within our vicinity to revamp their infrastructure.”

She announced that the company would inaugurate a fully equipped library at a school in Lagos Island in January 2018, adding that once the company donates to a school, it goes back after some time to assess the facility to ensure that it is being put to good use and if need be, to donate other things that are lacking in the school.