Beiersdorf Nigeria, the global maker of the leading skin care brand NIVEA has once again reaffirmed that social responsibility is at the core of its brand essence to Care beyond skin. The company on Thursday, November 28 donated the sum of N16,456,500.00 million to The Dorcas Cancer Foundation, a non-profit organisation in support of the foundation’s care for paediatric cancer survivors in Nigeria.
This amount was raised from in-store activations that ran from September to November 2024 across top 5 retail chains, where a sum of three hundred naira was set aside to be donated from every Nivea product sold within this period.
Beiersdorf Nigeria partnered with The Dorcas Cancer Foundation to create a Back-to-School fund aimed at helping children who survived cancer to get back to school. The fund will cater to tuition, uniforms, books and all the other necessary fees to keep the kids in school. This year’s goal is to get 15 kids back to school for all three academic terms.
Commenting on the Initiative, Country Manager, Beiersdorf Nigeria, Oladele Adeyole, noted that Beiersdorf is a company that believes in being a positive force for community good. This, he said, is the reason behind the company’s Sustainability Agenda called ‘Care Beyond Skin’, which aims to promote its social and environmental commitment to foster a more inclusive society and create positive environmental impact, adding that the partnership with The Dorcas Foundation is just one of the ways it is impacting the lives of people in the markets in which it operates.
He expressed the belief that the company’s donation will go a long way in helping kid cancer survivors in the country get back to school. “Due to treatment and financial strains, most kids miss school during their Treatment and sometimes find it difficult to go back to school once they have defeated cancer due to the heavy financial strains that their cost of treatment has on their parent’s finances,” he said.
“We care for people’s skin, and we are proud to be doing that. But beyond that, we also care for people in our community, especially the underprivileged in our society. That was what brought about the whole Cancer Care partnership, and we approached The Dorcas Cancer Foundation who we know are already doing some very good work in Nigeria in that space, especially in childhood cancer where they are trying to make sure that the survival rate is high, compared to developed countries. We are extremely proud to have that kind of partnership with them,” he said , adding that the relationship has since been beneficially fruitful.
Adeyole further expressed delight with Beiersdorf Nigeria’s other trade partners on this journey. “It’s not just all about The Dorcas Cancer Foundation. We also collaborated with trade partners like Justrite, whose Chairman was extremely proud of what we have done by giving back to the society through taking care of kids with cancer, and gave us an open cheque, and an open access to their store,” he disclosed.
He listed other trade partners including Shoprite, Market Square, Next Cash & Carry, and Hyper City as its other significant trade partners who yielded their platforms for the continuous success of Beiersdorf’ social mission journey.
In her remarks, Paediatric Oncologist and Founder, The Dorcas Cancer Foundation, Dr. Adedayo Joseph, thanked Beiersdorf Nigeria for the partnership. “Thank you for seeing our vision and choosing to invest in it. Thank you Beiersdorf for your support. I can’t even just explain how much of a gift it is to the families that are going to be supported by it. Thank you to everybody who’s been involved in this,” she said.