Olam Nigeria Limited, a top agro-commodity company in the country, has donated raw food items to over 400 Internally Displaced Persons in some selected camps in Kano State, and its environs.
The items such as rice, spaghetti, and vegetable oil among others were packaged in various sachets, and distributed to the vulnerable Nigerians by the company, as part of it corporate social responsibility and the move to support the governments in meeting the needs of IDPs.
Speaking, while, performing at the brief ceremony held in Kano to coincide with the end of Muslim Holy Month of Fasting, Sriram Vikas Athaluri, branch manager, Olam Nigeria disclosed that the gesture was carried out under the company Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program.
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Sriram disclosed that the donated food items were targeted primarily at vulnerable women at the camps, as the prevailing situation in the selected camps indicated that women were the most affected by the difficulty being experienced.
According to him, the items were distributed at the IDP camps situated in Mariri Maiduguri Road Kano, Hisba Office Dakata, Kofar Mata, Panshekara- Shagari Quarters, and Salanta Panshekara, where the bulk of the vulnerable persons, are residing.
In the same vein, he stated that the company has continued to intensify the implementation of the WHO recommended guidelines in all its sesame buying points to drive awareness to curb the Covid-19 pandemic spread.
It would be recalled that the company had recently embarked on the implementation of an awareness campaign on Covid-19, in some selected states in the northern part of the country, as a way of assisting the Nigerian government to curb the spread of the disease.
The campaign is designed to address the identified widespread ignorance among a large segment of the people in the selected states, on the spread of coronavirus, as well as educating them on preventive measures to be adopted in controlling the disease, especially in rural communities.
In 2020, the company has also distributed cooked food to over 2,500 vulnerable people in the states where the awareness campaign was being mounted, in partnership with a private eatery outfit- ‘Big Bite’, under a special initiative conceived to cushion the effects of the challenges posed by the pandemic to ordinary Nigerians.
Providing insight into the food distribution, Sri Ram revealed that the company implemented the initiative in order to support measures being taken by the Nigerian government to tackle the suffering brought about on Nigerians by the pandemic, particularly, among people in the states where the campaign is being implemented.
Sri Ram added, the food distribution campaign was also geared solely at helping the vulnerable segment of the society.
“The initiatives have been implemented by Olam, under its, Edible Nuts Preposition recognizes the tremendous efforts of the Nigerian government which inform our resolve to mount this awareness campaign to tackle the widespread ignorance on the spread of coronavirus, so that people can start taking preventive measures to control its spread.
The action plan which we are executing in the initiatives targets people residing mostly, in the rural communities in the northern States.
The awareness campaign is directed at the most vulnerable segments of the society, while, at the same time we intend to support our workforce in the upcountry locations” Sri Ram explained.
“We have also produced banners with informative precautionary messages which were strategically displayed at all the Company’s buying points in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, and Bauchi”, Sri Ram pointed out.
Also speaking, Zahra`u Mohammed Umar, Kano State Commissioner for Women Affairs, appreciated the management and staff of the company for prompt intervention in the food donation which according to her was very timely.
Zahra`u appealed to other companies, and public-spirited individuals to take a clue from generosity exhibited by Olam by supporting government efforts aimed at providing for IDPs, as well as vulnerable Nigeria, affected by the Covid -19 Pandemic
