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
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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