A Durban-based bank has launched a national school shoe distribution initiative, aimed at putting brand new shoes on the feet of some of South Africa’s most needy youngsters.
Launching its 2019 shoe distribution programme, Al Baraka Bank’s acting chief risk executive, Mr Ebrahim Hassan, said: “The harsh reality is that huge numbers of our young learners are simply unable to afford basic schooling needs. This poses enormous socio-economic challenges for the country and we believe that business has a responsibility to assist in impacting on the poverty trap in which so many of our people are mired.”
The bank’s intervention, providing footwear to some 400 primary school children in three centres around the country, follows a similar programme launched last year which saw hundreds of learners across South Africa presented with school shoes.
“We have identified three schools in Durban, Cape Town and Lenasia, in which learner needs are absolutely critical and have distributed new shoes to a total of 400 desperately disadvantaged youngsters,” he said of the corporate social investment initiative.
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The bank has provided 200 learners with shoes at Sibonginhlanhla Primary School, in Waterloo on the outskirts of Durban, and 100 pairs of shoes going to learners at Aberdare Primary School in Cape Town and a further 100 pairs being donated to learners at Zodiac Primary School in Lenasia.
Mr Hassan said: “Our young people must be comfortable in order to learn and develop at school. Those lacking the basics, such as school shoes, uniforms and stationery, are at a greater disadvantage than their better equipped counterparts – a situation which is not conducive to the effective and uniform education of our learners. It is the lives of these significantly deprived youngsters that we want to touch with our corporate social investment initiative.”
He added: “The bank is well aware that South Africa faces daunting social challenges. We are intent on utilising our long-standing corporate social investment programme, operational in three sectors, health, community upliftment and education to make a positive impact, no matter how small, to assist in developing and empowering the disadvantaged, regardless of race, religion or gender.”
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