Staff and management of Vivo Energy Ghana, the exclusive marketer and distributor of Shell-branded fuels and lubricants, commemorated this year’s Valentine’s Day with special children of the New Horizon Special School in Accra.
In a move to share the love with the children as the day symbolises, the staff engaged in various fun-packed activities, including singing and dancing as well as storytelling, with the excited children.
They also donated various medical equipment to the school to support the day-to-day running of the school, as well as branded chocolate bars, in the spirit of love.
Corporate Communications Manager, Vivo Energy, Shirley Tony Kum, explained that the brand is committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity, which is carried out through different corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; and this exercise is an annual activity that forms part of Vivo’s Energising Hope for the Future.
“As a company, we are committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity, and that is why this year we chose New Horizon Special Needs School; and this year, we are doing it under the theme ‘Leaving no one Behind’ because we believe in an equitable future,” she said.
She explained that in consultation with the school’s authority, a list of the most pressing needs of the school was provided which informed the acquisition of the donated items, including weighing scales, glucometers, pulse oxymeters, blood pressure monitors, nose masks, hand sanitisers, thermometers and latex gloves.
“The donation is necessary for ensuring the well-being and proper care of the pupils. These supplies will greatly enhance their quality of life, support their medical needs and facilitate their educational development. Additionally, it will also reduce the financial burden on the school and enable them to allocate resources toward other essential programmes and services,” she added.
She was confident that by intervening to procure these items, school authorities could channel the funds they would otherwise have spent in getting these items, elsewhere.
The Deputy Principal for the school’s Vocational Section, Mariama Obeng, expressed her gratitude to Vivo Energy for the medical equipment donated and appealed for more corporate support for the school as it was set up as a charitable institution, and receives no support from the government.
She explained that the school runs solely on the fees paid by students – which she described as meagre – and sometimes the donations of benevolent individuals and institutions.
Mrs Obeng said: “We were seriously in need of these things, so when they came, we decided to put our needs before them in the hope that they would be able to support us because we have a very beautiful centre and we need some of these things to work with”.
With some students struggling to pay their fees, she also appealed to corporate Ghana to come to the aid of the students to settle fees.
“The needs of the school are a lot because of the number of children. We don’t get anything from the government … If we were getting that, we could have used the fees to support other aspects of running the school. But everything is dependent on the fees and donations that we get. If other corporate organisations will be able to support us, it will go a long way to help us,” she added.
