SAP Nigeria raised its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) profile when it recently renovated a block of six classrooms to return over 300 pupils of Tolu Primary school back to the classrooms.
Two years ago 300 pupils of the school were displaced after a storm blew off the roof of their classrooms. The impact destroyed almost all of the schools furniture, teaching materials and left the displaced pupils to learn in makeshift classrooms.
The outcome disorganised the learning quality for pupils as it also affected teachers of the school until SAP Nigeria came to their rescue.
“I am very happy because my people will now be comfortable while teaching and learning will be much more effective,” said Solomon Aboluwodi, education secretary, Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Education Authority during the commissioning.
“There are other schools around this area that need such intervention; there is a need for private organisations to be like SAP and invest in the educational sector,” said Aboluwodi.
Also speaking during the commissioning, Felix Nwabueze, chairman-parents forum, Tolu Primary School said “the condition of these classrooms was an eyesore. We tried to make some little amendments but the breeze just blew everything away.”
“But now SAP Nigeria has come to our rescue. When we heard that they wanted to do the renovation, all the parents jumped up in happiness. I am very happy that it happened during my tenure as chairman. What we need now is continued assistance,” Nwabueze added.
Yearly, in October, SAP embarks on a signature CSR initiative tagged – Month of Service, where it devotes resources to charitable causes like renovating classrooms and supplying equipment to underprivileged people in society.
In line with this global CSR programme, SAP Nigeria, over the years, has invested in funding particular areas of education that corresponds to improving the learning outcome for underserved young people.
In 2015, SAP Nigeria funded the provision of 12 units of toilet facilities in primary schools in Victoria Island, Lagos. In 2016, the company also set up a 16-seater fully equipped digital learning centre in Lagos Model Primary School at GRA, Ikeja.
“If there was ever an intervention that would make a difference, this school was it. Which was the reason SAP Nigeria is intervening as part of its month of service in 2017,” said Juliet Omorodion, marketing manager, SAP Nigeria.
“Any right thinking organization has to be interested in education.
“As a company, we are always looking to create the maximum possible impact and this was very important to us because the students were squatters and they couldn’t learn properly,” Omorodion further said.
The intervention was facilitated through AYECI Africa, a non-profit organization committed to improving the learning outcomes of resource-poor children in underserved communities.
According to Ifeoma Idibe, facilitator of the NGO in charge of the renovation of classrooms in Ajegunle said that the NGO’s partnership with SAP Nigeria is one strategic step both organisations are taking to ensure the school children have a conducive place of study.
JOSEPHINE OKOJIE
