18 May 2020

A Tsabong company, Petxy Investments has produced a hands free hand washer product, which it has donated to Tsabong Primary School.

Speaking during the donation recently, the Managing Director of Petxy Investments Ms Diana Kaartze said the new hand washer,  worth P2 200 , was designed by local out of school youth and unemployed graduates.

She highlighted that the innovation was the idea of young people that she mentors, who are mostly orphaned and coming from vulnerable family backgrounds.

The idea was conceived after they noticed that ever since the Corona-virus pandemic struck, some players in the market hiked prices of necessities needed to fight the pandemic.

To counter this, they came up with an idea of creating a cost effective, durable, user friendly and sustainable product.

She said the aim was to help pupils in schools and therefore they created a product taking into consideration behaviour of the learners.

Ms Kaartze added that they wanted to produce something that was durable and locally produced as Botswana imported most of the necessities needed in the fight against coronavirus.

For this reason, she said it was pertinent to produce and supply locally to meet the rising demand as most countries were running out of supplies due to lock-downs.

She said the product could be used during sporting events as it was user friendly.

Furthermore, she said the innovation was double purposed as it had placements for hand sanitisers and a five-litre water and soap bottle.

The product is a about a meter long with a stepping platform where the user simply steps and water comes out to wash hands without touching.

In addition to the five hands free hand wash products, Petxy Investment disinfected two standard seven classrooms, donated 200 masks and 10 wall mounted user-friendly sanitisers worth P800 each.

She said five hands free hand washers had a two years warranty where the company would take care of everything, including replacing water bottles and hand sanitisers.

Ms Kaartze said the donation was a corporate social investment initiative. 

She added that the company was relatively new as it was established in 2017 to supply medical equipment, commercial cleaning, industrial cleaning, healthcare, hospitality, retail, transport as well as cleaning of educational institutions.

For her part, Tsabong sub- district council Assistant Council Secretary, Ms Onalenna Moribame appreciated the donation, which she said was an indication that local companies had heeded the call to assist government in the fight against coronavirus.

She added that the donation was timely as the council was busy preparing schools, which are to open on June 2 and must be compliant with COVID-19 health protocols.

Furthermore, she said the donation would go a long way in augmenting government efforts in preparing schools for reopening where it must provide sanitisers, hand washing facilities as well as to disinfect all 25 primary schools in Kgalagadi South.

Thus she said companies such as Petxy Investments contributed towards the fight against Corona-virus and their donation would go a long way in helping government achieve compliance in schools.

She encouraged more private companies and stakeholders to come on board to assist as council worked on a tight budget to prepare for the reopening of schools.

Tsabong Primary School head teacher, Mr Archie Seane appreciated the donation, noting the school was one of the biggest schools in Kgalagadi district with over 800 pupils. ENDS