Africa-Press – Zambia. Multi-Choice Zambia has joined the growing list if corporate bodies supporting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games bound Copper Queens with a donation of USD 20, 000 (approximately K420, 000).
And FAZ president Andrew Kamanga has thanked MultiChoice for supporting the Copper Queens journey to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Speaking during the handover of the cheque to the Charity Lumpa led committee of eminent women, MultiChoice Zambia Managing Director Kobus Bezuidenhout said the organization was aware of the challenges that FAZ faced in preparing the team for Olympics.
“As we celebrate the qualification of the Copper Queens to the 2020 Olympics, we are aware of the many challenges that the association faces in ensuring that our team not only succeed at the Olympics but that their time there is made as comfortable as possible allowing the team to only worry about their opponents and winning the cup. It is the reason we are heeding the call by the Football Association of Zambia to offer support to our Women’s National team with a cheque to the value of $20, 000,” Bezuidenhout.
He said that being the only flag carrier of the African continent in women football at the Olympics, the Copper Queens deserved maximum support.
And FAZ Executive Committee member Colonel Priscilla Katoba who represented the FAZ president, said the donation by MultiChoice would motivate the girls strive for glory at the tournament that kicks off on July 23 to August 8, 2021 in Japan.
“I want to assure that the girls will not just go there as participants, we have refused the word participant, but we will go and compete. We are doing all our best as FAZ so that they go and represent the country so well. We are going to bring the gold and not go as participants,” Kamanga said.
We want to appreciate Multi-choice for this gesture that you have come on board to this initiative that FAZ has initiated.
This a motivation factor to the girls and it will pick up their strength to rise to the occasion knowing the country is behind them.
Meanwhile Committee chairperson Charity Lumpa said it was not easy to raise funds in a Covid-19 strewn environment where organizations were tightening their wallets.
“This is a sign that MultiChoice has a strong gender focus and for us, it is a source of pride,” Lumpa said.
Lumpa heads a committee comprising Colonel Katoba, Dr Tukiya Mabula Kankasa, Priscilla Mutale Nkanza, Ndiyoyi Mutiti and Brenda Kunda.
The committee has so far raised USD30, 000 of the targeted USD 2 Million.
Zambia is in Group F alongside Brazil, Netherlands and China at the Olympics where they will be the sole representatives of the African continent.
