MTN Foundation Has 341 Projects Ongoing, Celebrates Persons with Disabilities

MTN Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility vehicle of Nigeria’s leading Information and Communications Technology Company, MTN, currently has 341 project sites across the country, including the FCT.

The Foundation disclosed this while joining the rest of the world to celebrate the 2014 edition of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in Abuja.

In partnership with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, the Foundation used the occasion to present a scorecard of its activities in support of persons living with physical disability.

The theme of this year's celebration, 'Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology' is tied around the importance of information technology and its impact on the way people live.

Speaking on behalf of Hajia Zainab Maina, minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr. Ezekiel Oyemomi, permanent secretary of the Ministry, commended the Foundation for its continuous support and contribution to the welfare and rehabilitation of persons with physical disabilities.

“The emergence of information and communication technology has dramatically increased connectivity between people and their access to information, and further raised their standards of living. Unfortunately, of the over one billion people living with some form of disability around the world, 20 percent of them make up global poverty, of which majority live in the developing world," Maina said.

The Minister also commended MTN Foundation for its support for people living with disability, especially in the area of empowerment and education. She urged other private organizations to partake in such collaborations towards achieving common goals.

Nonny Ugboma, executive secretary, MTN Foundation, said the theme of this year’s celebration was very timely, especially given the thrust of the Foundation’s Disability Support Project and the Science and Technology Scholarship Scheme for blind students.

Said Ugboma, “Literacy rate among persons with disabilities is significantly lower than those without any form of disability. Without mobility aids, many are unable to attend school like their peers, and should they decide to pursue the acquisition of technical skills, it is even more difficult because there are limited skills acquisition centres targeted at the needs of the disabled in our society".

Ugboma added "It is for this reason that the MTN Foundation embarked on the Disability Support Project, aimed at empowering disabled people with mobility aids and appliances and to support blind students through the UniversisitiesConnect Project by installing special software packages, which will enable them access books, research materials and other data in the computers in MTNF's digital libraries."

"By creating an inclusive society where persons with disabilities are accepted and encouraged, you not only perform a humane and noble deed, you also enable more people to contribute to the nation’s socio-economic development,” Ugboma concluded.

The MTN Foundation has since 2009 through its Disability Support Project, distributed over 19,000 mobility aids and appliances, including wheelchairs, walking sticks, crutches, guide canes, tricycles, hearing aids and Braille machines, stylus and mar bugs, Samsung Galaxy talking phones for the visually impaired and calipers for polio victims, among other aids, to Nigerians living with disabilities in 36 States of the Federation, and the Federal Capital Territory. It recently commenced Phase Five of the project.

The Foundation, under its MTNF Skills Acquisition programme, which also began in 2009, helps persons with disabilities to gain requisite skills in various vocations needed to empower themselves.

The two-year programme provides training in welding, fashion and design, shoe making, tailoring and leatherworks and fish farming, among other skills.

In addition to installing special software packages for blind students in its UniversitiesConnect projects in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Benin and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the Foundation has extended its annual scholarships to 451 blind students in Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education across the country.

“Disability is of the mind and in MTN, we believe that there is ability in disability, which is why we have put in place all these projects to empower persons with disability”, said Akinwale Goodluck, MTN’s Corporate Services Executive. “Going by this year's theme, we believe we are on the right track in providing access to technology to this group of people so as to foster sustainable development,” concluded Goodluck.

The Foundation currently has 341 project sites across the country, including the FCT.