Staff Writer
De Beers Group has donated a consignment of hand sanitizers and facemasks to the Office of the Prime Minister, for onward distribution to the Ministry of Basic Education, Arts and Culture.
The donation is part of De Beers Group’s N$15 million in-kind donation that it pledged to the Government’s Disaster Relief Fund to fight COVID19.
The donation to the Ministry consists of 7,500 facemasks and 5,000 300ml containers of hand sanitizers.
The facemasks were made by a community business initiative in Keetmanshoop, while the hand sanitizers were produced by UNAM.
“We are delighted to play our part in partnering with the Ministry of Education as Namibia takes a step forward towards reopening some of the country’s schools. We believe this donation will assist children, particularly those from vulnerable homes, to abide by the guidelines during the current situation, which require the wearing of face masks in public, as well as regular hand cleaning,” De Beers’ Country Director, Daniel Kali said during the handover the donation.
Commenting on the donation, Sanet Steenkamp, the Executive Director in the Ministry of Education said: “This donation is quite timely, considering we will commence face-to face schooling. We would like to express our depth of gratitude to the De Beers Group for this most helpful donation.”
De Beers Group has committed to leverage its global supply chain reach to source medical supplies for the COVID-19 response. However, in order to support domestic businesses in Namibia, whenever supplies can be sourced locally this will always be prioritised.
