Security giant G4S Botswana Limited donated a sick bay to Bothakga Primary school in Lobatse early this week.
Bothakga Primary School is one of the pilot projects for an initiative by the government called 'Health Promoting School and has a special education unit for students with disabilities and mental challenges which include complete mental retardation.
The unit was established in the late 80's and was initially at St. Theresa Primary School but was later relocated to Bothakga Primary in 1991.
Speaking at the occasion to hand over the sick-bay, the school's deputy head teacher, Charles Sehularo said that the support from the ministry of education and the town council was not enough and therefore. “The business community is one of the key stakeholders involved in partnership in the education due to the fact that the school outputs are the future employees of their agencies,” he said
Sehularo also lamented that the special education system in the country was unable to provide sufficiently for children with disabilities. He said the main problems they faced included lack of trained teachers, facilities and irrelevant curricula as well as inadequate coordination between responsible institutions and lack of funding.
G4S Managing Director, Moraki Mokgosana said; “We believe we touch the lives of Batswana in many different ways and as a corporate citizen we want to continue to impact on the lives of Batswana in the communities that we operate. Over the past four months we have participated in a number of corporate social responsibilities including charity walks, crime prevention campaigns and donations to worthy causes.”
He said the subject of education and children was close to their hearts and that the donation to the school was the biggest donation they had made so far. Mokgosana further said they had come up with an initiative called; Adopt a School and although they had not yet chosen the school to adopt he said they might have found it in Bothakga.
Mokgosana said G4S had been operating in Botswana since 1987 and employs over 600 000 people across the world and operates in 110 countries 39 of those in Africa employing over 110 000 people. In Botswana the company employs close to 2 700 people and is listed on the stock exchange with half a billion market capitalisation.
Deputy Director of Clinical Health, Botsang John said Health Promoting School initiative which calls for collaboration and partnership between the school and the local community was based on the understanding that the schools alone could not address the learner's health therefore the communities essential in supporting the initiative.
“This sick bay will have a positive impact on the health and learning of the students. It will bring resources close to the students and hence save time and resources. It's essential to day to day running of the school because it offers help to the sick and injured, screening for viral conditions and all diseases by health workers during school visits and observation for any other conditions as they arise in the school as well as counselling services and referrals,” he said.
Because the school has a special care unit, the sick bay will make a significant contribution to the unit. Our wish is that what G4S has done could urge other companies to donate to as part of their corporate social responsibilities.
Lobatse town Mayoress, Caroline Lesang was grateful for the sickbay which she said would go a long. “Even the future generations of the school will benefit from this donation. The school will never be the same and this donation should be viewed as an investment and not an expense by G4S.
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