Airtel: Why we have been touching lives

The fourth season of Airtel Touching Lives, a philanthropy programme, has come to an end.

The last episode of the programme was aired at a media briefing in Lagos on Wednesday.

Speaking at the event, Emeka Oparah, director of corporate communications, Airtel, said the telecommunications outfit embarked on the initiative to give back to the society.

He said each season has 12 episodes where the stories of the nominees are told.

“Airtel Touching Lives is our CSR initiative and we’ve been at it now for four years and we are rounding off season four today,” he said.

“The mechanism for touching live is to consult the public and ask them to please nominate people with problems who we get in touch it to verify their stories.

“You and I know that the government cannot provide all the basic needs, so as a socially responsible organisation, we elected to try and do this and in the past four years, I’m proud to say we’ve done a bit of our own to help out.

“This initiative is spread across the country and its our way of giving back to the society. These stories are documented and shown to people. What we do is not to look good on TV but to inspire other people to contribute their own quota.

“There are so many people out there who are suffering and we try to mitigate this; but how many can we do? That is why we showcase this so that people can key into it and be spurred to lend helping hands to the needy.

“It affords you the opportunity to get involved in the lives of the needy and do the little you can do to alleviate their pains.”

Asked about how much the company has spent so far on the initiative, Okpara replied that it is not about the money but the lives that have been touched by their actions.

“It’s not about how much we’ve spent but the number of lives we’ve been able to touch, the impact we make,” he said.

“This little things add up. The multiplier effect of these gestures put together may not be up to a billion naira but the question to be asked is if the gestures have changed lives.”

Oparah promised that season five of Touching Lives would be bigger and better.