23 Apr 2020

Wilderness Safaris company has donated food hampers and sanitisers worth over P28 000 to Sankoyo community.

The company also donated automatic hand sanitiser dispensary machine, which would be mounted at the village kgotla.

Speaking during handing over of the goods, the village chief, Kgosi Gokgathang Moalosi hailed the company for demonstrating love and care towards the community during difficult times.

He assured the company management that the food hampers would be distributed to every household in the village.

The donation, Kgosi Moalosi said, followed their plea to the company, adding that a local COVID-19 Task Force Team was experiencing an influx of people requesting permits to buy groceries in Maun.

“We were concerned about a high number of residents who thronged the kgotla demanding permits and we engaged our business partners operating in NG33 and 34 to see how best they could assist since most residents complained of hunger. We are thankful for your noble gesture,” he added.

While the tourism industry had been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kgosi Moalosi appreciated that Wilderness Safaris managed to come to the village's rescue even though they were not generating income.

He hoped that the donation would minimise movement because residents would now have something to eat, adding that their expectation was to see people adhering to the extreme social distancing protocol.

Kgosi Moalosi also appreciated that the community trust would soon donate some food hampers to residents to complement what they had.

Concession NG 33 manager, Mr Luka Ncube said they rescued the community as part of their corporate social responsibility.

He said community welfare was paramount since the country was going through a hard time to control the pandemic, which affected many lives socially and economically.

Mr Ncube said they found it fit to assist the community since some of their employees from Sankoyo had also been affected and further revealed that they had to temporarily suspend services of 33 employees working at Sandawana Lodge, hence the need to sustain them.

Wilderness Safaris operations manager, Mr Neil Steedman, underscored the need to pull together during the COVID-19 pandemic and believed that their partnership with Sankoyo community would grow. ends