26 Nov 2018

 First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) continues to touch lives in the education sector across the country.

Through the bank’s corporate social investment arm, the FNBB Foundation, Maun branch in partnership with Botswana Corporation recently donated 103 solar bags to Ngarange Primary School in the Okavango District.

The sophisticated bags were allocated to pupils in Standard Four, Five and Six, while the same was also done at Gani Primary School, where 116 solar bags were donated.

The solar school backpack has a lamp and a portable solar panel connected to it that would be able to charge when the learner carries the bag under the sun.

Speaking at the event in Ngarange, FNB Maun branch manager, Ms Kelebogile Disang said with the solar bags, they believed that results would be improved because learners would be able to read at night without being hindered by lack of sources  of light at home.

She said they decided to extend a helping hand in remote villages such as Ngarange and Gani because some of the services such as electricity were not yet available in those areas.

Ms Disang noted that since 2015, FNBB Foundation set aside P500 000 for corporate social responsibility, while to date, the foundation had used more than P2 million.

Botswana Power Corporation area engineer, Ms Kesejwang Setlabosha said the solar backpack partnership was a corporate social investment initiative aimed at empowering children in the remote areas of Botswana.

She noted that the initiative aimed to support pupils with basic lighting for their studies with the desire to improve their academic performance.

“This is also a continuation of our efforts to improve lives of young people and contribution towards the education sector as you may know that in addition to these bags, we have adopted Ngarange primary school in an effort to assist the school to produce excellent learners and eventually improve their academic performance,” she said.

She therefore noted that as BPC and FNBB Foundation, they shall undertake consistent monitoring and provide support to all the primary schools that received the solar backpacks countrywide to ensure that the intended outcomes of the project were met. ENDS