September 8, 2015 By Victoria Saffa
One of the leading mobile telecommunication companies in the country, Airtel, will be providing start-up capital and other resources to 50 women entrepreneurs across the country as part of their corporate social responsibility, according to Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Alhaji Moijueh Kaikai, during a press launch of a new local movie titled ‘Elephant in the Room’ last Saturday.
According to Minister Kaikai, the mobile company had promised to make this donation to enable Ebola widows acquire business start-ups after their very painful experience with the deadly virus, just as they have been doing for orphans and children affected by the outbreak.
“As a government, we do not want to see survivors or their widows begging on the street after the outbreak, as it happened with the civil war survivors,” said the minister, adding that as Airtel had decided to help, the ministry would support them with strategy to ensure they achieve their goal.
He also revealed that Airtel had been helping the government to feed over 50 children on a daily basis, and urged the mobile giant to do more in terms of providing proper social welfare status in the country.
In his response, Marketing Manager of Airtel, Leroy Coker, noted that they were very concerned about the status of Ebola survivors as they see them as ‘friends of Airtel’.
He revealed that as a company they have supported the government with over a billion Leones since the outbreak was confirmed last year, and called on beneficiaries to make good use of their support.