Foundation set to reachout to children with mental health disorder

As part of its annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and in line with the month of May theme on mental health awareness, Giftwagon Company (GW), through its charity arm Gift-a-Warrior (GAW), is set to reach out to children with mental health disorder.

According to the founder Giftwagon company, Lateefat Amodu-Balogun, “four years ago we decided to go beyond just a gift company. We wanted to touch the hearts of people that have weathered harsh storms in their lives or currently suffering from any form of afflictions or disability. In that moment of decision, “Gift-a-warrior ” was born.

She noted that while the term warrior is usually attached to people with sickle cell anaemia but this time they have decided to take the term up a notch. Gift-a-warrior is a charity drive aimed at showing love and care to the challenged and the disabled, one gift package at a time. Beyond just people with physical disabilities, it focuses on people with mental, psychological and emotional disabilities. The goal is to rekindle their hope for the future.

Amodu-Balogun stressed that the initiative unlike other charitable programmes gives a window for customers to anonymously give to warriors by buying a non-profit gift box (customers buy the gift box for its exact cost price) with price range from as low as N2,000 to N10,000 and each of these boxes would be given to a warrior.

Read Also: Untreated malaria could lead to mental problems – Expert

Giftwagon has however partnered with a body closely related with the form of disability targeted in this edition. The purpose of these partnerships is to gain access into the space of these warriors and to easily select beneficiaries of the initiative.

“In the first edition, we reached out to Sickle Cell warriors, where we partnered with Crimsonbow Initiative, a registered faith-based NGO that reaches out to people who have been affected by the Sickle Cell Condition and raise awareness about the condition. In the second edition, we reached out to widows and partnered with Channel for Widows Relief Initiative (CFWRI) to drive our cause.

“This year, in our third edition, our warriors are children with mental health disorder and we have partnered with Sane Mind Nigeria.

“One of the most underrated gifts in the world is having a sane mind. The ability to have good judgement, reasoning and can tell the difference between what is real and imagined. Sadly, we know that most of these children are sidelined, we want to reach out to them and send a reminder that they are worth more than any societal negative stereotyping and disapproval.”