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Olamide Babatunde
“Residents of Barbwire in Eti Osa Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State had another reason to be thankful on April 16, when Eurufly Limited visited with food items and relief materials from which over 200 persons benefitted from.
The gesture a philanthropic feat from Careca Akarue, Chief Executive Officer of the firm is in line with it’s Corporate Social responsibility Service.
Speaking on the essence of the service, he said: We actually feel the need to solve the challenge of COVID-19 from the grassroots level.The real people that are affected are the people those economic state is in bad shape. We deem it fit as an organisation as part of our CSR to reach out to the people. In bringing relief materials to these people , if we can make them smile we have achieved our purpose.
Most of the residents of Barbwire live in makeshift houses close to the beach front in conditions that require succour.
Bolanle Cole, an elderly beneficiary in her 50s expressed gratitude for being privileged . She said in her lifetime she has never experienced such a thing as ‘lockdown’, which made people stay at home in lack and want.
“To be honest, this rice I got will do something for my family because we are hungry. There is hunger in the land .Since we cannot go out, it has been difficult to feed. I am grateful that these people can remember us today. They are blessed and feel like blessing the community, God will keep providing for them”, she prayed.
Mixed reactions however trailed this gesture as some members of the community regarded it as a truce which philanthropists use to fleece money from government using the depravity of others.
Akarue, who addressed the crowd said the essence of bringing succour to the people is to alleviate the plight of people during this COVID – 19 lockdown.
He maintained that is those who were more at risk are the illiterates, who had no access to healthcare facilities, right information and food.
“We decided to reach out to this people to educate them and bring relief materials to them. We know it can’t go round but we are hopeful it will go a long way. I believe government cannot do everything but if all come together, we can all achieve greater things.
I chose this community because I live close to them. Every morning when I go for a walk, I see the level of poverty around and it saddens my heart.
The first thing we set out to do is educate them about Corona virus pandemic and then make them smile afterwards”, he remarked.
Majority of the men in this community do menial jobs that barely sustain their families. The stay-at-home order has made life more difficult than usual.
Before the food items were handed out, the distribution point was bursting at the seams as hand sanitizers, face masks were offered first.
As adults struggled to stay on a queue, children had found a spot in one of the dilapidated shanties as they chorused happily ‘ Light , Light’ from heaven, shine on us!
