The Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism has joined hands with Stanbic Bank, in a campaign to collect any and everything that could be of use to the economically disadvantaged in Maun, particularly those infected or affected by HIV.
Through a partnership that was forged through Stanbic’s Maun branch, clothing donations for Maun may be made at all Stanbic branches countrywide.
At the “Collections for the Needy” campaign launch on the 13th August, Portia Segomelo, Deputy Director of the Department of Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism said, “This particular collaboration between the Ministry and Stanbic Bank owes its conception from the Ministry’s efforts to mainstream elements to cope with HIV and AIDS within its activities to develop the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP) in Ngamiland.”
Segomelo said, through this ODMP process they have learnt that organisations should not only look within, supporting their staff, but to embrace the effects of HIV and AIDS on the larger community.
“The Ministry has adopted a number of targeted initiatives,” she said, adding that the Ministry Wellness Policy, which she says, “guides focus activities which relate to dealing and coping with the effects of HIV and AIDS from the perspective of the environment sector.”
The environment sector is primarily field-based. Its officers include wildlife officers, foresters, scientists and district planners who are highly mobile.
Segomelo said, the Ministry has, as a result, incorporated issues of HIV and AIDS in such processes as part of environmental impact assessments for all proposed projects.
She also indicated that Ngami Sub District, through their survey, has indicated that marginal areas most affected by HIV and AIDS include Ditshiping, Daunara, Shorobe, Tubu and Boro.
Stanbic Bank Managing Director Leina Gabaraane said, “One of Stanbic’s core strategic values is to be relevant in the communities we operate in, our relevance should not just be seen in the provision of banking services but also in the social upliftment of our societies.”
He went on to say, “It is against these values that we together with the Ministry embarked on this project of collecting clothing for the needy using our branch network.”
The bank kindly requests that the public donates clothes, toys and books to aid the initiative.
