A Platform for Ordinary People
Mary Ekah An abandoned village in Iwo, Osun state is being brought to focus through the pathetic story being told in the the current special live touching TV series, Touching Lives, being aired every Saturday at 8:00pm on NTA Network, and every Sunday on DSTV African Magic channel 154, sponsored by the award winning 2014 best customer service telecom firm, Airtel Nigeria.
The people of the Akinbami village have for a long time, been cut off from modernity, infrastructural development, and worse of all, medical services. The lack of healthcare services or access to medical supplies, have had adverse effect on the lives of the residents of the village. The village also lacks good roads; this makes access to the closest medical facility in the city difficult especially at night. Being cut off by bad road, the community members are helpless in the face of emergencies.
Therefore the community members suffer from high infant mortality especially during birth, as there is poor childcare, no access to immunization. Lives threatening sicknesses and Incidents such as snake and scorpion bites, burnt, typhoid etc. have no solutions and cut life of the victims shut in the community.
For this pathetic situation, the people of Akinbami village found favour in the eyes of one Mr. Adisa Adeniyi Kabiru, Founder/President General of Gideon’s Community Development Association. Kabiru had nominated the village in the Airtel Touching Lives project. And in the character of the telecommunication giant, they couldn’t over-look the plight of the people, and therefore came to their rescue.
Airtel has recognized them from their tribulations by providing medical supplies, a baby crib, a hospital bed and mattress, a fetal Doppler, a pulse optometer, a smart sign life plus, a defribulator for heart attacks and a True Scope to monitor vital signs.
In the same episode 6 of Touching Lives, Airtel also came to the rescue of Mr. Sanni Muritala, a story of hardship, hope, determination and strength. Sanni was an able bodied energetic young man living in Maiduguri. His life took a downward trend when he was unfortunate to be around when the daredevil Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalist struck with a bomb. He woke up in the state hospital with his legs amputated.
Since that period his life had been torn apart. He lost his buoyant small-scale grocery business; his family ran for their lives and is currently taking refuge in Chad. With nobody to help him, he sojourned to take refuge in the Hausa community in Port Harcourt and had to take to street begging to survive.
Despite his situation, Sanni has taken upon himself to raise and send regular money for upkeep to his displaced family in Chad.
While struggling to raise enough money to bring his family back to Nigeria, Airtel intervenes to rebuild Sanni’s life by providing him with resources to relocate his family, a wheel chair, a fully stocked basic grocery store along with Airtel recharge cards.
Touching Lives is a show about creating a platform for ordinary people in need: Men and Women, Young and Old, rural and urban to have a chance to fulfill their lifelong dreams. This project is a TV series that is aired on TV. Ultimately, it is about encouraging culture of giving among Nigerians who are well off to offer helping hand to the needy in the society; and ensuring that they have a better and improved quality of life.