Uchechukwu Nnaike
As part of its annual tradition of giving back to the society, the staff of Ernst and Young Nigeria (EY) recently donated electronics to St. Joseph Catholic School Inclusive Unit, Lagos Island, as well as food stuffs and toiletries to Living Fountain Orphanage, Lekki.
The gesture according to the Regional Managing Partner, EY West Africa and Country Leader, EY Nigeria, Mr. Henry Egbike, is in line with the company’s philosophy of ‘building a better working world’, adding that the level of dedication and passion displayed by the managers of the places they had visited in the past also inspired them to sustain the programme for about a decade now.
He said for EY, building a better working world means supporting the community, it is not about profitability.
“Most times when you think about private organisations, the focus is on profitability, but in EY we have gone beyond that; we realised that there is a higher purpose why we exist as an organisation and that purpose is to build a better working world around us and a better working world is about supporting communities and touching lives. That is why we came up with this programme.
“Every year, we set aside a day to visit orphanages, schools and support them; we are very passionate about this and the way we do it is not just to sit in the office and send gifts or money, we actually get senior people in the organisation and other staff to visit the environment, feel, relate to the people, and the children in the orphanages that we visit, discuss with the leaders in those places to understand their needs and what they are doing so that we can relate to what they are doing and I think that is the inspiration.”
Asked how the beneficiaries are selected, Egbike said: “We scan the environment, visit schools and orphanages and understand what their needs are and then we select. We make sure we don’t visit the same place again so that we can share the love around.”
He said some of the item provided for the Inclusive unit were 55-inch and 33-inch television sets, speaker, projector and printer, to aid the children in their learning process, and expressed hope that the equipment will have a positive impact on their grades going forward.
While thanking EY for the show of love, the founder, Living Fountain Orphanage, Mrs. Betty Obieri called on Nigerians to come together to help vulnerable children and make them somebody in the society.
She stressed that if all companies can think of orphans and the vulnerable in the society, the rate of crime and social vices will reduce and there will be less children hawking on the streets.
On his part, the head of the Unit for Inclusive Education, Mr. Oladapo Akinyele, said the unit was established in 2006 by the Lagos State government and it takes care of children with learning disabilities. He said the equipment will boost their learning, make learning accurate and motivate the pupils to always come to school.
He said the school is in dire need of a bus to ease the transportation of the pupils to and from school, to further increase enrolment.
