MRS AMBODE, STANBIC IBTC WALK FOR CHILDREN WITHOUT LIMB

Hundreds of people, including the wife of the Lagos State governor, Mrs Bolanle Ambode and CEO, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Sola David-Borha, on Saturday in Lagos took part in a charity walk tagged ‘Out for a Limb’ organized by Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Irede Foundation as part of activities to raise awareness for children without limbs.

The walk, which was flagged of by Mrs Ambode at about 7am from the corporate offices of Stanbic IBTC on Walter Carrington Crescent, took participants through Ozumba Mbadiwe, Victoria Island, to the Lagos Law School and back to Walter Carrington.

At the flag off, David-Borha thanked Mrs Ambode and her team for honouring the call to participate in the walk at such short notice. She also thanked Stanbic IBTC staff and other participants for coming out in their numbers to support such a worthy cause. The CEO said the activity is part of the corporate social investments of Stanbic IBTC, which is focused on three key areas of human life: health, education, and economic empowerment. She said the bank’s support for Irede Foundation, an NGO established to cater for the prosthetic needs of children without limbs, is in two folds, health and education as she assured that the bank will not only provide prostheses for the children with limb losses but that their educational needs will equally be met.

According to David-Borha, “Stanbic IBTC, as part of our corporate social responsibility, has three areas of focus: health, education and economic empowerment. We wanted to have a flagship cause that people will identify us with and we did a survey among the staff and arrived at health for children, which was then narrowed down to prosthesis. We are focused on children who are not well supported so that we can make a real difference in their lives.”

While flagging off the walk, Mrs Ambode said Stanbic IBTC has been known over the years for its invaluable corporate social investment projects, particularly in education where it continues to build libraries and provide books for schools in the state. “The event (the charity walk) will go down in history as one of those with the most profound impacts on the children of this country,” Mrs Ambode said. She assured that Stanbic IBTC can count on her support and that of Lagos State on such a worthy cause. “Stanbic IBTC deserves profound commendation for the diligent and consistent execution of its corporate social investment projects,” Mrs Ambode added.

At a short ceremony after the walk, Stanbic IBTC presented cheques to beneficiaries to cover their prostheses and their educational needs. CE of Irede Foundation, Crystal Chigbu, while thanking Stanbic IBTC for its support said, “The interesting thing about what Stanbic IBTC is doing is the fact that it is going beyond giving limbs and giving education to those children. I personally am excited with what we are doing with Stanbic IBTC.”