Itel, NGO celebrate christmas with children in slum

It was a new dawn for children at the Makoko riverine community in Lagos recently, as itel Mobile, in collaboration with The Give Hope to the Slum Child, a non-governmental organisation, took the Christmas celebration to them in the slum.

The children could not contain their joy as they came out from their shanties en masse in their canoes to witness the feeling of Christmas.

One of the children simply identified as Ezekiel said it was like a dream come true as they hardly witness Christmas celebrations from organisations in the community.

Parents also brought out their toddlers to receive gifts and foodstuff from the organisations.

The celebration also witnessed free medical check ups and treatment, as the community is not living in a good health condition, with the dark dirty water and the dangerous odour oozing out of the water.

Itel Mobile gave out cartons of noodles, school bags and other branded gifts, while the NGO gave out clothing, rice, garri and provided free medical check up for the residents.

Regional Marketing Manager, itel Mobile Nigeria, Haibo Huo said every month, the organisation engages in charity in all the regions of Nigeria as part of its corporate social responsibility.

He said bringing the charity, especially, this festive season, to the slum was necessary as the children there require more attention.

“We are celebrating Christmas with the children, we choose to reach out to the poor. Because of Nigerians, itel has had good sales and in order to show our appreciation, we decided to give back to them by CSR,” he said.

Also speaking, the Marketing Communications Manager, itel Mobile, Nigeria, Oke Umurhohwo said: “We go to communities to celebrate with the needy in different states in the country, we brought it down to Makoko community because we discovered that people rarely focus on reaching out to the community despite the heavy need of the presence of outreach, as the people are greatly suffering and in need of help, we decided to do something for the kids.

The children are suffering, they don’t have schools, and they barely celebrate Christmas the way others out their do, so we want them to have a feel of Christmas celebration.”

Meanwhile, Founder of the Give Hope to the Slum Child Initiative, Olowoniyi Oluwaseun, said the initiative was the eight in the series of its outreach project, adding: “We realised that people at the slum need our help. We are here to have medical outreach for these people, we can see their conditions, the waters are dirty, they are not living in the right condition, so we have a number of medical doctors on our team who are screening and checking them for little health conditions that can be treated, and also drugs.

He ever, called on other corporate organisations to extend their CSR and give towards alleviating the poverty of the people in the riverine and slum communities.