Africa-Press – Botswana. The contribution of First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) Foundation in helping to meet the needs of the deaf community is a commendable development that will both promote community members’ wellbeing and boost their self-esteem.
The Executive Director of the Botswana Society for the Deaf (BSD), Ms Orapeleng Mokgosi, said this in Francistown on Saturday at the handing over of a volleyball and netball court worth P816 000 to Francistown Centre for the Deaf.
“It has indeed been through the support of FNBB Foundation that Botswana Society for the Deaf, Francistown Centre for Deaf Education has continued to meet its current and emerging challenges,” she said.
Ms Mokgosi said the Foundation had continuously supported the deaf community with facilities that not only benefited them directly but also uplifted their wellbeing and built their self-esteem and confidence.
She said the BSD partnership with FNBB dated back to 2013 when the Foundation constructed a P1.3 million classroom block with ablutions and some storerooms at Ramotswa Centre for Deaf Education.
“FNB Foundation also assisted the same centre in 2019 by erecting four 10 000-litre water tanks to supply the school with water,” said Ms Mokgosi.
She said the donation had come at a time when the school was experiencing water supply challenges due to low pressure that was a result of the facility having been built on the foot of a hill.
She said the just donated volleyball and netball court of international standards came at the right time when there was need for the deaf to broaden their horizons through active participation in sport.
She said the court would afford the Francistown Centre for Deaf Education to showcase its learners’ sporting capabilities through participation in games such as the paralympics.
Ms Mokgosi said while there has been success in providing inclusive education to those with hearing impairment, today’s era called for exposure to life-enriching opportunities that were necessary for a balanced and wholesome life.
She added: “We are honoured as the deaf community to receive such a valuable and cherished donation that will go a long way in improving sports in Francistown Centre for Deaf Education. Interaction among the deaf community is important and calls for many improvements, and this will also strengthen their relations as they interact in sports and will give them new opportunities of interacting and meeting new people.”
She promised that the donated facility would be well-maintained and taken care of for it to last long and benefit future generations of learners.
For his part FNBB Foundation trustee, Dr Lesedinyana Odiseng, said the donated facility was a form of support meant to encourage differently-abled children within the community to participate in sport.
“It is through these initiatives that the Foundation continues to play its role of investing in one of its six focal areas, being sports development and commercialisation in Botswana; and on this occasion it is the development of future sportswomen and men at grassroots level,” he said.
He said youth empowerment, environmental sustainability, education, sport development and commercialisation, arts and culture and social welfare were the six strategic focal areas that guided the work of the FNBB Foundation.
Dr Odiseng said through the six focal areas the Foundation has since inception invested a total of just over P77 million in local communities.
Explaining its background, he said in 2004 FNBB registered the Foundation to carry out its corporate social investment through which it annually extended one per cent of its profits towards the identification, assessment and funding of worthy and sustainable causes in Botswana.
“This was to fine-tune the bank’s acceptance of its responsibility towards the environment that it does business in,” he said.
The school head of Francistown Centre for Deaf Education Ms Boitshepo Munyadzwe-Mathumo said though most students were academically challenged, they excelled in sporting activities, hence the donation would help unearth and nurture their talent from a tender age.
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