Chiamaka Ozulumba
Cititrust Holdings Plc has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting both public and private initiatives in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with the donation of one million naira for the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health care workers.
The cheque was handed over to a non-governmental organisation, Health Emergency Initiative (HEI) at the company’s corporate headquarters in Lagos, on Tuesday, June 2.
HEI, a recipient of Best Supporting NGO Award by Lagos State Health Service Commission, partners the Federal Road Safety Corps, Lagos State Ambulance Service, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and other relevant agencies to ensure that critically injured accident victims receive prompt life-saving care in public health institutions.
Speaking during the occasion, Group Chief Executive of the company, Mr Yemi Adefisan, said Cititrust Group had earlier donated food items to Lagos and Osun state governments, and cash to the CBN COVID-19 account.
Adefisan said the current gesture was Cititrust’s contribution to an emergency trust fund set up by HEI to provide much needed PPE for frontline health workers in Lagos State.
Also speaking at the event, chairman of Cititrust COVID-19 Response Committee, Mr. Kunle Adewole, said the company was proud to work with credible organisations like HEI in ensuring that critical needs of frontline health workers are promptly met.
According to him, records show that the organisation has donated PPE to LUTH, LASUTH, FMC Ebute Metta, FRSC and IDH, Yaba, “hence, Cititrust has no doubt that donated funds will be judiciously utilised”.
He said the company would continue to “explore other areas of critical needs in the COVID-19 response and healthcare sector in general with a view to rendering its corporate support”.
In his own comments, the Founder/Executive Director of HEI, Mr Paschal Achunine, thanked the management of Cititrust for its “unrelenting support for the social well-being of Nigerians”.
He disclosed that other services offered by HEI include assisting indigent patients in public hospitals, particularly children, who could have died of infections like malaria, sepsis, typhoid fever, pneumonia, tetanus, diarrhea, cholera, among others.
According to Achunine, over 485 patients have benefited from HEI’s intervention, including 210 children across 27 hospitals in Lagos State.
He used the occasion to solicit support of other corporate entities and individuals for the organisation.
