STAFF REPORTER
Zimbabwe companies have set up the Business Fighting COVID-19 Trust as part of efforts to support and complement government on the the fight against the deadly disease.
The goal of the initiative is to rapidly deploy flexible resources to assist in the equipping and administration of existing medical facilities for the benefit of the Zimbabwean population.
On Saturday, the Trust received and commenced distribution of 30,000 tonnes of mealie meal donated by Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed seed maker SeedCo.
The mealie meal will be distributed to vulnerable members of the society in different parts of the country and to public hospitals to support the staff who are at the frontline of the battle against the COVID-19 virus.
The Trust kicked off the national corporate social responsibility initiatives through a donation of several bags of mealie to assist the nurses and doctor fighting at the front-line of this pandemic.
This generous contribution from Seed Co comes at a time when food security is a concern for many Zimbabweans in lockdown.
SeedCo group head of public relations and communications,Marjorie Mutemererwa, said: “‘As Seed Co, we are happy to play our part in this joint effort to provide some relief to the brave men and women fighting the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus. We hope this contribution gives our health care workers one less thing to worry about.”
The mealie meal will be distributed to the public health workers at Parirenyatwa, Harare and Chitungwiza hospitals.
This initiative will spread to vulnerable groups of people that have been identified by the Trust. Additional 20,000 tonnes of mealie meal have been pledged.
Speaking at the handover ceremony ,a representative of Parirenyatwa said: “The health care community appreciates this contribution by the Trust. As a society we do not function in isolation, it is encouraging when we join hands to address issues that affect us all.”
On behalf of all the public health workers who will benefit from this generous donation, we would like to thank all the corporates who have joined forces to make this happen.”
The vice chairperson of the Trust who is in charge of finance and resource mobilisation, Lance Mambondiani said: “We intend to use our collective influence to mitigate the effects of a disease that has claimed over 58,000 victims and disrupted all of our lives”.
