STANBIC IBTC group has given out up to N100. 5 million as scholarship for children without limbs across the country.
The company has also provided them with prostheses to aid their movement and physical activities.
The chief executive of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Dr Demola Sogunle, made this disclosure in his address at this year’s edition of the company’s ‘Together-4-A-Limb Walk’ event held in Lagos recently.
‘Together-4-A-Limb Walk’ is a corporate social responsibility initiative of the company where participants comprising Stanbic IBTC group staff members, students, policy makers, newsmen, among others, take a long walk along major roads to create awareness about the plights of children who have lost their limbs and other vulnerable to garner support for them to live a fulfilled life.
Speaking further after the long walk, Demola, expressed great satisfaction over the intervention, saying it is yielding tremendous results.
He explained that the company came up with the initiative nine years ago and had so far identified and supported up to 100 children in that physical health condition nationwide with each of them receiving N1.5 million to support their education and also provided them with prostheses.
He gave this year’s number of beneficiaries to be 45 nationwide, which is the largest in a single year since the commencement of the project.
According to him, the long walk is to awaken the consciousness of people at all levels to take deliberate steps to create an all-inclusive society in which everyone irrespective of their physical challenges finds fulfilment.
He said by doing so, they will be able to fulfil their potential and become positive change agents in the society.
The beneficiaries, according to him, lost their limbs due to different factors, some from congenital issues or birth defects, and some others due to accidents or mismanaged injuries among others.
Sogunle said Stanbic IBTC is very committed to the cause such that the last three editions of the long walk and scholarship award presentations were held virtually due to COVID-19 outbreak, promising that the company will not relent.
In their separate remarks at the event, the wife of Lagos State governor, Mrs Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by Mrs Oyindamola Ogunsanwo and the vice consul, German Embassy, Nigeria, Viola Van Loock, commended IBTC Holdings for the initiative, saying it is an investment in a right direction.
Sanwo-Olu’s wife particularly pointed out that investment in children’s education is the best legacy in any society.
She explained that many people, particularly children from the less privileged homes, are naturally talented but needed just a little support for them to accomplish their ambitions, hence the need to look towards their direction.
“That is why I will implore other corporate bodies, religious institutions, and philanthropists to take a cue from IBTC group to join in this type of laudable project for the sake of humanity and the society at large,” she stressed.
Interestingly, beneficiaries of the scholarship and prostheses were in attendance at the event and some of them with their parents and expressed appreciation to Stanbic IBTC group, saying the move has given them hope for a better tomorrow.
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