By Vivian Onyebukwa
In an effort to bring an end to malaria scourge, Itel and Amatem Softgel, joined the rest of the world to commemorate this year’s edition of ‘World Malaria Day’ with the theme,”Time To Deliver Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement”, with a particular focus on the implementation of strategy to reach marginalized communities.
The duo visited Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle, Lagos where they offered the residents free malaria tests, distributed malaria drugs, and mosquito nets, while educating them on the prevention of malaria.
Taiwo Abdulahi, Head of CSR Events and Partnership, Itel explaining why Itel chose to visit the community said, they are vulnerable to malaria considering the environment. “If you look around you see canal, toilet, animal staying with them, shanties, and terrible refuse disposal system. And you know that mosquito thrives in dirty places. That is why we choose to be here. We had suggestions of many places, but when we got here, we realized that they are more vulnerable to malaria itself and they needed our help”.
Itel is a notable smartphone brands, home appliances, accessories, and laptops manufacturers, while Amatem Softgel is a leading anti-malaria drug in Nigeria.
Explaining their partnership, Abdulahi said, “While we are giving them mosquito nets, Amatem is giving malaria drugs to the people who are positive to malaria currently”.
According to her, they decided to mark this year’s malaria day with the community because of their market strategy. “We are for the mass market. We believe that people staying here are our people. So this is a way of appreciating them as customers. Our 2023 World Malaria CSR is to join the fight against malaria, and we hope that we will be able to help people go through malaria-free life”.
Fikayo Oluboyode, Regional Manager, LB Pharma Nigeria Limited, said they celebrate World Malaria Day knowing that one major challenge of healthcare for Nigeria is malaria. “We took the initiative to partner with Itel to reach this community being the area that malaria thrives due to the way the environment is. When there is stagnant water, dirty areas, Nigeria has malaria issues. The best fight against malaria currently is prevention. So we will be educating them on how to keep the environment clean and also sleep in insecticide treated net, and to visit the hospital for test and treatment when they have malaria”.
Some members of the community who benefited from the program, expressed gratitude to Itel and Amatem Softgel. “I appreciate their visit because my family and I are beneficiaries, Ibrahim Olatunji said.
Also, Owolabi Kazeem expressed his gratitude for remembering their community and providing them with malaria drugs and mosquito nets.
World Malaria Day marked each year on April 25th, brings together the global malaria community to highlight global efforts to end malaria.