Yemisi Izuora
As part of its corporate responsibility and sustainability intervention, FirstBank through its Hope Rising Initiative designed to provide health and welfare support for disabled persons, has partnered with the Down Syndrome Foundation of Nigeria to provide succour for people living with Down Syndrome disorder as well as support the advocacy platforms of the foundation.
The Bank began this enduring partnership in 2009 and has since supported various activities of the foundation such as the annual Down Syndrome Awareness Week, the annual Inter House Sports competition and recently, the Bank instituted the Hope Rising Drama Series, a thirteen episode radio drama series designed to highlight the challenges of Down syndrome and explore efforts at combating the disorder by providing a platform for advocacy and public enlightenment. The radio programmed was aimed at encouraging listeners to adopt prescribed codes of behaviour as they relate to issues with Down Syndrome.
The Down Syndrome Foundation Annual Inter House Sports competition, which is in its seventh year and scheduled to hold on March 11, 2015 would again be supported by the Bank.
The annual Inter House Sports competition is aimed at improving the physical and intellectual development of persons living with Down Syndrome through sporting activities designed to inculcate appropriate skills and values such as good sense of judgment, hard work, integrity, confidence and inter-relationship. FirstBank is a patron of the Ivory House (Blue House) at the Inter House sports competition and the Bank’s participation at the event will customarily include staff participation to encourage members of the Blue House during the various sporting activities as well as identify with the children of the Down Syndrome Foundation.
According to the Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Folake Ani-Mumuney, the Bank has supported the Down Syndrome Association over the years to ensure medical and educational intervention as well as social integration. “It is our delight to build an inclusive society which will put the children first, enable them to attain their highest potentials and contribute their quota to national development sometime in the future’. She said.
Culled from: The Citizen Ng