The Management and staff of Opportunity International Savings and Loans (OISL) drawn from various branches of the company, embarked on a 5-kilometer health walk from Ayi Mensah to Peduase.
The Saturday walk marked the company’s annual Staff Welfare Day and as part of the walk, they were taken through aerobics sessions to exercise their bodies.
Led by the Board Chairman Mr Katey Assem and other top executives of OISL later spent the rest of the day with students and staff of Akropong School for the Blind in line with their corporate social responsibility, which is to focus on Persons with Disability.
The OISL dinned and interacted with the students, donated food items, paid for the cost of repairs for over 50 braille typewriters for effective learning.
The group also inaugurated a urinal built for the school to enhance sanitation.
Board Chairman of OISL Mr Assem said the aim of the exercise was to encourage staff of to regularly exercise for a healthy living, to increase awareness and understanding of disability issues and offer support as they have done annually in the past years.
The head, Mr Atsu Homadzi, on receiving the donation on behalf of the school expressed appreciation to OISL for the continued show of love and concern for the welfare of the students over the years.
He reiterated that ‘disability is not inability’ as boldly inscribed on the wall of the assembly hall.
Rather, PWDs require empathy but not sympathy such that they should not be pitied but be provided with opportunities to enable them to overcome their disabilities and become responsible citizens.
Mr Homadzi prayed to other benevolent organizations for support by emulating OISL.
Similarly, the northern sector branches of the institution will have their annual welfare health walk on the 8th of June, 2019 starting and ending at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium through some principal streets in Kumasi.
OISL is the only financial institution that has a dedicated loan product, specifically tailored for people with disability.
To date, over 900 PWDs have benefited from the company’s concessional loan dubbed ‘empowerment loan’ across the country.
OISL has been in collaboration with the Ghana Federation for Disability Organizations over the past six years, supporting them in diverse ways to enable them enjoy meaningful lives. This is a core pillar in the mission of Opportunity International Savings and Loans.
