By Chioma Umeha
In line with its commitment to its Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative for children, Dufil Prima Foods Plc,
makers of Indomie Instant Noodles has unveiled and rewarded three more lucky
winners who emerged at this year’s Indomie Independence Day Awards (IIDA). Each
awardees went home with NI million scholarship for social, physical and
intellectual bravery categories, in addition to donations from kind-hearted
individuals and corporate organizations.
With the emergence of this year’s set of winners,
a total of 27 children have now been rewarded over the nine years of existence
of the initiative.
Fourteen-year-old Salisu Ibrahim, one of the
winners is a visually impaired pupil of Special Education Centre, Bauchi. He
has been blind from birth. He is a cobbler, who puts the legs of the able
bodied persons in shoes. Another winner of the categories was a nascent
inventor, Babatimileyin Daomi. He is 15, but has creatively invented a vacuum cleaner,
a phone bank, a portable fan, self watered flour vase and a functional radio.
The third winner was a 15-year old Favour Unwene.
She came from Ikono, in Akwa Ibom State to clinch her N1,000,000 scholarship
award in the social bravery category.
Favour saved a life. According to her, she visited
her friends to see how they were faring, only to discover assassins had killed
two of the family members. Her timely intervention saved the life of the third
person who as well would have been killed.
While giving his welcome address, the Group
Managing Director, Dufil Prima Foods, Mr. Deepak Singhal, said the ninth
edition of the landmark event is targeted at expanding the initiative into
categories to identifying, recognising and rewarding children, who have done
well in distinguishing themselves by carrying out exemplary heroic acts in each
category that have touched the lives of others positively.
“This event is noteworthy as it seeks to fill the
gap that exists in celebrating and rewarding the positive efforts, strong
character, and achievements of many young children who have exhibited various
acts of courage and heroism at one time or the other within the country.”
According to Singhal, Dufil Prima Foods would
always celebrate children who serve as change agents in their respective
communities and beyond.
He added that the winners indeed deserve to be
celebrated for scaling the strict standards of the panel of judges who followed
laid down guidelines as has always been the norm since the inception of the
awards.
Before their stories crossed the major hurdles to
be deliberated on by the judges, they were verified by the research team after
which eyewitnesses were interviewed to ascertain the authenticity of their
stories.
Managing Director of The Education Partnership
Centre (TEP Centre) and an education policy expert with several years of
research experience spanning academia and private sector research, Dr Modupe
Adefeso-Olateju, delivered the keynote address at the event.
In her keynote speech titled, “The Nigerian Child:
Our Biggest But Yet Untapped Resource,” Dr Adefeso-Olateju, emphasised the need
for the empowerment of the Nigerian Child.
She said: “We need to get things right with the
Nigerian Children and only then can they be an asset to the nation. We need to
create an environment where they can develop their natural talent. They must be
given a chance to contribute to their societies, and thus to economic
development and the growth of the nation.
It is apparent that for any nation to develop
economically there is need to improve the nation’s human capital by investing
heavily on education. The current state of our education system needs to be
overhauled to focus on the needs of the most important stakeholder group – the
Nigerian child.”
Addressing the winners as “the resource for
national development,” she commended Stanbic IBTC Bank and DAAR Communications
Plc, for partnering with Dufil to make the event successful and charged more
organizations to toe the line of Dufil Prima Foods by also contributing efforts
similar to this, which is bound to ensure a more secure and blissful future for
our kids.
The Group Public Relations & Event Manager,
Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Mr. Tope Ashiwaju congratulated the winners of this year’s
IIDA awards and reiterated the company’s commitment to the developmental growth
of the Nigerian child.
Ashiwaju further said: “Having come this far with
many success stories since inception as it relates to the children that have
emerged winners, I make bold to say that the editions to come will be more
memorable than the previous ones.”
On hand to felicitate with Dufil Prima Foods Plc
and the winners were Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, the First Lady of Lagos State,
Mrs Bolanle Ambode, Former CBN Governor, Chief Joseph Sanusi noting that the
landmark event was a message of hope to minors nationwide that their best
efforts were appreciated.
