…Says people with disability helped put my name on world map
A former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, Chief Mrs. Chinwe Ezenwa has bared her mind on what motivated her to create a world brand, Lelook Bags about 40 years ago.
Speaking in her position as the Mother of the day at the just concluded International Women’s Day with women with disability held in Lagos on Thursday by Bomarah Foundation in partnership with Chanelle Foundation, Ezenwa said:
“Then, when you see people with disability, I respect these people, I honour them largely because my younger brother is a person living with disability.
“Forty years ago, when I came back from Canada, I met this my brother who has nothing to do. The only option that he has was to think about begging on the streets because he could not talk, he couldn’t hear. He’s deaf.
“So, I said to him, I am not going to allow any of that. And my younger sister is a woman living with autism . So, you can imagine in a family of seven, I have two siblings that are living with disability and their mother was a young widow and I am the eldest.
“So, I decided to tell my brother, if you cannot hear and you cannot talk, you can look. That’s when I created Lelook. I created that company to empower somebody with disability and today, that company is forty years old, empowering millions of Nigerians. Millions of Nigerians are being empowered by one singular act of charity.
“Right now, by the grace of God, the company has established an academy, there’s one in Apapa, thanks to this woman (Apapa Local Government Chairman), at Apapa GRA here where we are training women in the act of bag making free of charge for export.
“In Abuja, we have the same academy training women by UNDP free of charge for export. It is called AfCFTA because Africa has a big market for 1.4 billion people to receive made in Africa goods and all these women here should be getting ready for that exercise.”
She however, promised to continue to advocate for people living with disability insisting that they helped put her name on the world map.
Her words, “I can promise you one thing, until I go to my creator, I will continue to advocate for people living with disability because they helped to put my name on the map of the world and that is why I have come here.”
She thereafter thanked God for creating the Chief Host for the event, Hajia Bola Muse adding that God did not make mistake in creating her even as she described her as an embodiment of energy, kindness, generosity and hard work.
“And then, the other woman, Chanelle (Dr. Anire Okogun), they say that women are not their own best friends, but I can testify that these are two great women collaborating. You know, little things make women jealous of one another. It’s either the ear ring or the hairdo. When you get to my age, I am 74, you will sooner realize that those things don’t mean anything. That what means something is what you are doing now”, she advised.
Photo : Dr. Anire Okogun, President, Chanelle Foundation (2nd left); Chief Mrs. Chinwe Ezenwa, CEO, Lelook Bags (4th left); Hajia Bola Muse, President, Bomarah Foundation (middle) and Amina Mohammed, CEO, Aims Communications during the event in Lagos Thursday.
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