KALANGALA: Stanbic Bank has extended a helping hand worth Shs18m to Bishop Dunstan Secondary School in Kalangala District. The donation includes 50 modern classroom desks valued at Shs12.5m and 250 reusable sanitary pads worth Shs5.5m.
This timely support is part of the Stanbic Corporate Social Investment initiatives aimed at improving the learning environment and promoting menstrual hygiene for the girl students.
Speaking at the handover, Francis Karuhanga, the Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL) Chief Executive, said the items will supplement the donation made by MTN Uganda to the same institution during the Yello Care activities.
“Recently, the Stanbic team escorted our brothers from MTN Uganda here when they had come to hand over their donation. During that specific visit, our regional manager saw a gap on the side of furniture, which we have to come to solve. Today I’m here to handover 50 modern hardwood classroom Desks and 250 reusable sanitary pads, all valued at Shs18 million,” said Karuhanga.
“We believe that every student deserves access to quality education and dignity. This donation is a testament to our dedication and purpose fused to driving Uganda’s growth.”
The school administration led by the Headmistress, Cathy Kawasaka, expressed gratitude for the timely support, citing the challenges faced due to limited resources.
“They are very many schools on this Island, but I want to thank Stanbic Bank for always choosing our school. This is not the first initiative extended to us by this great bank. Our students recently participated and got life changing mentorship during the Stanbic National Schools Championship,” said Kawasaka.
“After the training, they were given a huge seed capital to bring their project ideas into life. Today, I’m glad to inform you that we have started making good revenue out of the hygiene products like squeezers and liquid soap made by our students here.”
Henry Ssebunya, the deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Kalangala, saluted Stanbic for championing education, health and social welfare of the people on the island. He said the island residents are facing several socio-economic challenges, but he was grateful for the continuous support from corporate bodies like Stanbic Bank in helping to transform their lives.
Ronald Mutebi, the Kalangala District Inspector of Schools, noted that he met three headteachers from schools in Kalangala last year, and that they had developed a concept on how to acquire some computers. Mutebi would later establish that one computer was serving 29 students.
“This school managed to secure some computers from MTN Uganda and the gap immediately shifted to furniture where the students would sit while using these donated items. Therefore Stanbic coming here will help us to partly address this challenge, especially at a time the curriculum is shifting from theory to competence based learning,” he added.
Recently, Stanbic bank donated an emergency rescue boat to support mothers who get difficulty during delivery at Lutoboka landing site to have access to better health care on the mainland. Last year, the bank was again in the same district of Kalangala offering essential maternal healthcare equipment.
Carlos Sserwadda, the Stanbic Bank Western region manager, said the bank will continue to carry out corporate social initiatives that align with Stanbic’s Environmental, Social and Governance strategy. This focuses on improving access to good education, health, empowering the youth and building the capacity of SMEs to become sustainable businesses.
“Stanbic was the first institution to put up a home here in Kalangala and the journey towards empowering our people through financial literacy and access to affordable financing and free business advisory has never gone back,” he said.
Stanbic Uganda Holding Limited comprises five subsidiaries that include Stanbic Bank, Stanbic Properties Limited, SBG Securities Uganda Limited: – an investment and brokerage firm, Stanbic Business Incubator Limited, an enterprise development centre and FlyHub Uganda Limited a technologies and innovations company.
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