Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected]
Monrovia – Over 200 employees of four companies owned by Lebanese business tycoon Ezzat Eid on Sunday, April 29 conducted a massive cleaning up exercise at the compound of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center (JFK) in Sinkor.
The volunteers are employees of City Builders, International Aluminium Factory, Royal Grand Hotel, and Medina Rock – all owned by Mr. Eid.
They signed up for the campaign and showed enthusiasm throughout the day, cleaning and disposing stockpile of garbage.
Over US$5,000 was spent on the exercise which included purchased of equipment used during the cleaning up and were later donated to the hospital. The items included wheelbarrows, shovels and brooms amongst others.
The charity is supported by Mr. Eid’s businesses, which consider volunteering and giving back to Liberia as part of his social corporate responsibility.
“We were called on by JFK – by Dr. Jerry Brown to come up and do a cleaning up campaign and help make JFK the number referral hospital in the country,” said Marwan Eid, son of Mr. Eid, who led the team of volunteers on Sunday.
“And so we talked to all our staffs and everybody was willing and wanted to help, so we actually had more people volunteering than we requested.”
He said in addition to the cleaning up exercise, the charity also spends US$30,000 annually on scholarships for vocational school and university students; it builds schools and makes donations to vulnerable communities.
“Next week, we will be donating close to 300 chairs to a school in Marshall, Margibi County, so we’re trying to move to communities were we can make the most impact,” Eid said.
Commenting on a future collaboration with the administration of the JFK Hospital, he said assured “a very good partnership with the JFK because the hospital needs help and the charity is willing to give to sectors that needs help”.
“Many people need help in Liberia and we within our financial capabilities, we will pick and choose where we will make the most effect and we will continue to help other hospitals that come calling us for assistance,” he said.
During the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, the Ezzat Eid Charity Foundation made several donations and contributions to the fight against the deadly virus. Now, Eid’s firms are using the charity as a means of exploring other avenues to expand social corporate responsibilities in the country.
“We are planning to have bigger activities and events because we are open to helping any organizations that are in dire need,” said Omar Hamzi, one of the expatriates who volunteered.
Hamzi said the charity is setting a budget to expand its activities to other parts of the country.
Speaking on behalf of the JFK Hospital, Amara Kamara, communication officer of JFK, said the intervention of the Ezzat Eid Charity Foundation is a major contribution to the massive cleaning up campaign exercise launched on Friday by the administration.
“We are so happy to see our partners and our compatriots making sure that the hospital is clean,” Kamara said, stressing that waste management remains a major challenge of the hospital.
“This exercise is actually enormous because since some 12 years this is the major exercise, which is helped by extender forces that have come to help keep the health sector.”
He lauded the charity foundation for donating all the equipment, describing it as a means of reducing financial constraints on the administration that is already facing budgetary constraints.
“If you help a major health centre like the JFK that means you are helping the entire Liberia, which is the case of the Eid charity and the helping they are giving us.”