A non-governmental organisation, The Ben Akak Foundation, has donated over 2, 000 bottles of hand sanitisers and more than 2000 face/nose masks, hundreds of surgical gloves to the Cross River state ministry of Health.
Other beneficiaries of the gesture included the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH); the Nigerian Navy Referral Hospital; Port Health Medical Services of the Margaret Ekpo Airport, and traders at the Marian market in the Calabar metropolis.
Making the donations, the wife of the chairman/chief executive officer of the Foundation, Mrs. Joseline Ben Akak, said the gesture was to give back to the society the numerous blessings of God on the Foundation, and to support the effort of the Cross River government and other health institutions in curtailing menace of the pandemic.
He said, “At first, decided to embark on an awareness campaign by putting on air jingles on various ways of preventing coronavirus attack and the jingles have been running for the past two weeks. Later, the Foundation felt that running jingles alone was not enough so we decided to support the fight against the pandemic with these items. We have already reached out to many individuals at their homes.
“So far, we’ve distributed more than 2,000 pieces of hand sanitisers, 2,000 pieces gloves and many face masks. We have also supported the state government with cash. The foundation is apolitical, this is simply humanitarian services. I appeal to Cross Riverians to adhere to strict instructions that have been given out by the authorities.”
Responding, the chief medical director of UCTH, Prof. Ikpeme Ikpeme, who was represented by the chairman, Medical Advisory Council, Prof. Ngim Ngim, commended the Foundation for the gesture, while the chief matron of the Navy Referral Hospital, Navy Capt. R. O. Poppola, described the gesture as “laudable.”
