•From left: Idowu and Balogun presenting food items to the pupils
A logistics firm, SRIPD Containers and Logistics Services Limited, yesterday donated food items to the Pacelli School for the Blind in Surulere, Lagos.
The firm’s Managing Director, Mr Olusegun Idowu, called on wealthy individuals and corporate bodies to come to the aid of the school to achieve its expansion project.
Project Director of Handmaids Anchor Centre in Badagry Revd Eucharia Uwakwe, had, during the presentation, called for assistance from well-meaning Nigerians to complete the school’s project.
Idowu said the gesture was part of the firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
“Giving back to the community is our call and this is not our first time of coming here; this is our second time of giving to this community. Another reason why we need do this is because this school is freely funded; they don’t pay for it, so if we as a business can’t support them in our little way, then we have not done enough. That’s why we have taken it upon ourselves that every now and then as the business prospers, we will give back to this segment of our community,” he said.
He urged the society to relate with the kids as normal people.
“They are normal; it’s not whether they need to be seen as normal, there is nothing wrong, they have one disability or the other but they are normal children. That’s why the principal mentioned the government’s policy of inclusiveness. They need to mix them with other students who don’t have disabilities so that these special children would see themselves as the other children,” he said.
SRIPD’s Executive Director of Finance Tinuke Balogun said the gesture was to encourage others to remind the school during their CSR activities.
“We are passing a single message to people to come and support the challenged people because most of the times, they don’t have somebody that will talk about them or speak for them, so SIRPD is here to support them,” she said.