Eat’N’Go to provide academic sponsorship for 1200 out-of-school children in remote communities
By Zion Rufus
Nigeria’s leading restaurant group, Eat‘n’Go Limited has stepped in to cater to the academic needs and wellbeing of 1,200 out-of-school children in partnership with Slum2School Africa.
The Slum2School Programme, a corporate Social Responsibility initiative, was launched to identify out-of-school children at slums in remote communities with the aim to provide them quality education.
The 4th edition of the CSR initiative which held at Tarkwa Bay in Lagos was graced with the presence of EatNGo and Slum2School executives, teachers, parents, children who will be recipients of this year’s programme, and volunteers who engaged the kids in career mentorship and advised them on the importance of literacy.
Tear-eyed Shekoni Rihannat told MARKETING EDGE of her hopes of becoming a banker.
“I stopped going to school in JSS1. My mummy doesn’t have any money.”
The 10 year old Tarkwa Bay resident expressed her gratitude to EatNGo as she brightened up while noting that now her mother’s hope will also be fulfilled.
Chief Executive Officer, Eat’n’Go Limited, Patrick McMicheal while speaking to MARKETING EDGE disclosed that for him, reaching the milestone of 1,200 kids was an exciting thing to see.
“We started off with about 40 children in 2016. In 2019 we had about 1000 children. 2020 we did 1100 children and this year we are going on with 1200 children. We have picked up a lot of children who weren’t getting enough education and they are in school now.”
Cheerful 8year-old Grace Lekam-Obi shared her joy at the news that she could go back to school. She explained that it had been difficult to approach her mother ever since the new academic session resumed.
“I watch others going to school. I can’t cry because I understand,” she told MARKETING EDGE
While buttressing the importance of giving back to a country that has done so much, Mc Micheal pointed that as a company “it’s one thing to be successful in Nigeria, the other thing is to give back.”
In his words: “I think it’s really important to give back when you are successful across the country and so for us we looked at how can we give back. We do a lot of hiring and training of young people in Nigeria and these young people need to be educated to be successful, that’s why we partnered with slum2school to ensure these children get an education and hopefully one day they can work with us.”
Speaking on how much has being achieved and the impact of the partnership with EatNGo, Ogechi Ofurem, Head of Operations, Slum2School said: “EatNGo has played a huge role in our organization by ensuring that we continually support the children that we have in school. For instance today’s programme is a reality because EatNGo partnered with us.”
She continued: “They have also given us all the support we need to ensure that these children are well oriented on the importance of going to school as well as the importance of their ability to read and write; that’s the essence of our literacy day campaign. Currently in Nigeria, we have about 10million out-of-school children; at the moment we are fundraising to support 5000 children and EatNGo is supporting us with 1200 children and for us that is a really huge milestone.”
Together with Slum2School Africa, Eat N’Go will ensure that the 1,200 children from slums in Nigeria are placed in schools by the end of 2021. Eat‘n’Go Limited is the parent company of Domino’s Pizza, Cold Stone and Pinkberry.
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