Thursday, September 4, 2014

MTN Backs Ebola Fight with Medical Equipment Donates

 LAGOS State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has commended Nigeria's leading Information and Communication Technology Company, MTN, for its public spirited gesture, which he said is a tradition associated with the MTN brand, especially in matters of Education and Health.  Governor Fashola stated this while receiving Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers and caregivers, donated by MTN Foundation in support of Lagos State's effort a
t containing the spread of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease.

The donation was made under the MTN Foundation's Community Support Project, which lends a helping hand to communities through infrastructure upgrade such as the provision of water boreholes, transformers etc for the benefit of people.  The presentation of personal protective equipment was a response by the Foundation in support of the systematic and professional approach of the Lagos State Health Team in curbing the Ebola scourge.

Governor Fashola lauded MTN's Private-Public Partnership model, which has seen the Foundation partner with government and other stakeholders in responding to different challenges in times of need, especially given the current health challenge faced by the country. "We are indeed grateful to MTN as it has been a tradition of theirs especially in matters of health and education. We also appreciate the health workers who in spite of the fear, worked tirelessly to bring the situation under manageable control. As much as we appreciate MTN's gesture, we want to reiterate that the real challenge is human capacity, that is, the insufficiency of virologists and Ebola management experts," said the Lagos State helmsman.

Shedding more light on the presentation, Chairman, MTN Nigeria, Dr. Pascal Dozie, said the gesture was in support of all that the Lagos State government had done to contain the spread of the Ebola virus since it was first discovered.

"MTN recognises the importance of collective effort and the role of the private sector in containing the spread and the impact of the disease and we take very seriously, our responsibility to provide a service that is essential in a period of national emergency as we have found ourselves. This is why we are making this donation of personal protective equipment to supplement measures to protect our frontline health workers and caregivers," he stated.

"We have also activated a 24-hour, 7-day a week help-line in conjunction with our call centers management partners where customers can get basic information on Ebola, with support from the Lagos State Ministry of Health, through the office of the Special Assistant on Public Health to the State Governor. On a  national scale, we have partnered with the Federal Ministry of Health to launch a public awareness campaign via SMS to educate our 58 million subscribers about the Ebola virus," concludes Dozie

The items provided for caregivers by the Foundation include: Elbow length gloves; Level Four overalls with hood, knee booths, goggles, medical masks, anti-viral sanitizers, rubber aprons, respirators and bags of hair-nets for female health workers. For the frontline health workers, the items include elbow length gloves, medical masks, anti-viral sanitizers, level three overalls with hood; rubber aprons and thermal scanners.


Akinwale Goodluck, Corporate Services Executive of MTN Nigeria, said: "At MTN, we believe in making positive impact in the lives of everybody and in this current health challenge, the frontline health workers and caregivers, who are the most vulnerable at the moment, are a great concern to us, which is why we have stepped in to contribute our own quota. Providing the Personal Protective Equipment to protecting our frontline health workers and caregivers as well as continuously educating millions of our subscribers via SMS in English and our local languages and phone call, is a demonstration of our promise to continue to touch more lives, everywhere we go." 

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