Airtel Offers Economic Empowerment to Women

Airtel Nigeria, one of the leading mobile operators has empowered the lives of two women to fulfill their life-long ambitions of being economically independent in the second episode of the Airtel Touching Lives, a social investment project to help the downtrodden which airs today on cable and public television stations.

The telecom company has come to the rescue of Miss Blessing Danladi, a young poet living with her widowed mother Rhoda who is unable to fund her education. 

The young girl has turned her love of spoken word into a skill, amazingly beyond her years and circumstance.

Airtel has offered Blessing’s mum a means of livelihood so that she can train her daughter and help her realize her dreams of becoming a medical doctor.

Airtel also came to the rescue of Foluso Pamilerin with a motorized wheelchair and finance to help continue with her bead business.

Pamilerin was paralyzed from waist down for the past 12 years due to ‘Okada’ motorcycle accident.  Unfortunately for her, she was duped of her life saving by her lover five years ago who abandoned her with a young child.

Pamilerin’s immobility due to a lack of a wheelchair further highlights the odds faced by people living with disabilities and the incompatibility of many of our living conditions to fit in with their situations.

A natural born survivor, she has turned her immobility into a small business beading herself a new life and providing training to others, empowering them to survive their own situations to become entrepreneurs.

Emeka Oparah, director of communications and CRS, Airtel Nigeria said Blessing and Foluso are a microcosm of the stark realities of our lives and deliver on the promise that with a little hope, much can be achieved.

“For now, it's time to celebrate these lives that have been touched by Airtel. Of course, this is just episode two, but it truly felt like a statement effort – an effort to continue to awaken a cycle of giving among Nigerians," he said.