Olusola Bello
Ensuring it host communities stay safe and healthy is one of the major cardinal objectives of TotalEnergies’ sustainability development goals in Nigeria. Without staying safe and healthy it would be impossible for members of it host communities and by extension Nigerians would be able to benefit from the numerous programme it has lined up to enhance their socio-economic status.
This benevolence was demonstrated recently when along with it partners they donated a Medical Oxgen Plant to one the foremost healthcare institutions in Lagos, the Gbagada General Hospital.
It intervention was a response to the call by the Federal Government of Nigeria who expressed great concerns over the high rate of death due to lack of access to Oxygen in the nation’s hospitals.
Statistics showed that more than 625,000 deaths are recorded annually in Nigeria due to diseases associated to with hypoxaemia- insufficient oxygen in the blood or low blood oxygen saturation.
In children, hypoxaemia is a major fatal complication for pneumonia, accounting for 120,000 under 5 death in Nigeria annually. Evidence from secondary health facilities in Nigeria also show that 25 percent of neonates and 12 percent of under -5 children admitted to hospital with pneumonia are hypoxaemic on admission.
Again , in the face of the ravaging Covid 19 , the company was at the forefront helping to stem down the effect of the pandemic as it contributed N1.2 billion out of the N21 billion donated to the federal government to fight the disease by the upstream operators in the oil and gas industry. It sister company in the downstream contributed a whooping sum of N50million as part of the combined contribution from Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) towards the same course. It also provides 50 litres of Petro to officials of Lagos State for logistics during the Pandemic.
TotalPreneurs
Totalpreneurs is one of the steps by which the company is empowering creative Nigerians to realize their potentials business wise.
TotalEnergies believes in developing a strong partnership with stakeholders to ensure social intervention that reflect real needs and resonate with beneficiaries and their communities.
The sustainability strategy for this focuses on education and capacity development as a deliberate lever to boost human resources outcome that are evident in short to long term period and multi- faceted impact.
For instance, education remains fundamental to human capacity development and through Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), members of every society can gain useful skills that are relevant to the economic conditions of their existence.
“This partnership that birthed Totalpreneurs, commenced in 2016 with 60 students and by 2019, 240 beneficiaries had graduated from the Nigeria’s training programme. Participants are drawn from the six geopolitical zones and given a three months, hands on training experience by partner training with major research centres in Nigeria. Through this investment, many young men and women have transited from unemployment to entrepreneurship.
Education Beyond Walls
Statistics from the United Nations Indicates that youth constitute 1.8 billion of the global population, with 87 percent of them residing in the developing countries. This creates a responsibility on other population segment to shape this critical mass of the future- not just as passive beneficiaries of development efforts for positive social integration and change.
For that reason, TotalEnergies organizes a summer youth camp every year to create awareness among the youths to the possibilities that exist for them. Through the project, Total Energies underscore its commitment to youth development by aligning its actions with the UN SDGs that demand leadership from youth as positive agents of conflicts prevention, societal transformation, and the attainment of sustainable peace.
These are epitomized in the ‘Youth Konnect for peace Network’ as an avenue to invest not just in the youth, but in influencing thought, innovation, energy, and development towards entrepreneurship and social innovation.
According to the company’s 2019 Sustainability Report, a two week camps in it host communities for youths, now in its third year is designed to enlighten, educate and inspire students to take their destinies in their own hands by being advocate of peace and worthy leaders of tomorrow. This exercise witnessed a huge turnout of secondary school students numbering about 70 drawn from 27 communities in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States.
This initiative has also help to curb incidences of cultism, pipeline vandalism, militancy, drug abuse and other related vices.
Aside from this, TotalEnergies is also committed to promoting quality education and the development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country.
It has invested in the construction of science Laboratories at various locations in the country. A typical example of it benevolence is demonstrated with the construction of Science Laboratory at the Toyon High School in Ere Community in Ado Odo Local Government of Ogun State.
According to the company, the choice of that school was strategic because it is situated within a school cluster and therefore provided access to Laboratory facilities for many more students.
A multi specialist science laboratory for Physics, Biology, Home Economics and Agriculture was delivered last year with facilities for up to 20 students in each section and 100 students at the sometime. Also, a 20KVA solar power device were installed to ensure constant power supply as well as water borehole with over head tanks, laboratory regents and apparatus so that nothing hinders STEM education and learning for tomorrow innovators and investors.
As part of its continuing commitment to the educational development of Nigerian students, every year, 1,600 scholarships are endowed to students in many tertiary institutions.
Partnering To Support Communities Fight HIV/AIDS
Total Energies has also been contributing so much in stemming down the scourge of the deadly HIV/AIDS in the country. To do this effectively it became a member of the Nigeria Business Coalition against AIDS NIBUCCA, a coalition of leading businesses committed to fight the pandemic at various levels of the society.
Every year it advocates and invest in projects aimed at minising the spread of HIV/AIDS. December 1st of every year is set aside to celebrate World AIDS Day and remind people of the HIV epidemic. Since its discovery, approximately 75 million people have been infected and 32 million of those have lost their lives to the disease.
The company commemorated the world AIDS Day in 2019 with other members of NIBUCCA as its employees ‘Walked In Solidarity’ with people living with the virus. The Walk, which was in line with the global theme: “Communities Make The Difference” emphasized the roles communities plays in response to HIV/AIDS.
This is a demonstration of Total Energies’ collective resolve as a business and corporate citizens of Nigeria to confront and end this pandemic that is destroying lives, families and business.
HIV testing centres were set up at stadium, under bridges and other locations to run free testing so that people can know their status.
At TotalEnergies, fighting against HIV/AIDS is a fight to protect it host communities, employee, families, partner organization and society at large from the infection. In the last 13 years TotalEnergies and It partners have been educating Nigerians on HIV preventive measures and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS management. So it has organized HIV/AIDS Preventive Awareness in 22 States across the country. Other disease the Company is actively participating in see that their scourge is reduced to barest minimum in the country includes Cancer and Malaria.
