by Staff Reporter
A local youth empowerment organization, Elevate Trust has donated an assortment of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to schools in Matabeleland South Province under their initiative dubbed “Safe Schools Campaign.”
Speaking at a handover ceremony held on 24 September, at Selonga High School in Gwanda District, Elevate Trust representative, Samantha Xaba said their donation is driven by the need to promote education activities in disadvantaged communities and called on their partners to make more donations.
“We are reiterating the message of calling on partners to take this time to assist schools in getting PPEs to ensure safe environment for the students as schools are about to open after being temporary closed in an attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19.”
The donation included 1 000 facemasks, 11 x 5 litres sanitizer, 11thermometers and 10 micro side sachets for each school in the Selonga cluster. The major sponsors for the donations were CleanBox and LEC Biotec.
In a bid to fight the corona virus pandemic, Elevate Trust has initiated the “Safer Schools Campaign,” a program which focuses on fundraising and donating PPEs to rural schools. The main objective of the campaign is to actively seek for more ways to protect students and create a safer environment when schools re-open. As such the organization has come up with an innovative portable kit, which they are proposing to every teacher to have in the country as schools re-open.
Accepting the donations, Matabeleland South Provincial Education Director, Lifias Masukume said they were pleased with the donations that were coming from the private sector and urged Elevate Trust to continue with the good gesture in equipping rural schools.
District School Inspector, Sibanda also appreciated the donations and explained that most of the schools under the Selonga cluster did not have the required PPEs for schools re-opening and that was a call for concern.
“I would like to thank Elevate Trust for such a great initiative that ensures the safe re-opening of schools. The PPEs will go a long way in protecting students and the teachers against Covid-19 pandemic.”
Since the launch of the Safer Schools Program, Elevate Trust has managed to donate PPEs to various schools in Matabeleland North Province and Hatcliffe in Harare Province. The major partners of the campaign include Rotaract Borrowdale Brooke, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, United Nations Zimbabwe Education cluster and LEC Biotec, a local private organization.
