Over 40 Standard Chartered Bank employees volunteered to conduct a community initiative at Salaama school for the blind, located at Kisoga–Mukono, where they took part in the painting and renovation of a classroom block.
The group also planted 300 fruit and indigenous trees as a way of preserving the environment and catering for the nutrition needs of the students over the long term.
The Headmaster and founder, Mr Francis Kinubi welcomed the Bank employees to the 23-year old institution where they would later socialize, learn and play with the children, including watching how they read and write in braille, and other special needs equipment.
Speaking at the volunteering event, Mrs. Margaret Kigozi the Acting Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing at Standard Chartered Bank revealed that they had embarked on a mission to reduce carbon emissions as fast as possible, but sustainably to net zero by 2050, and Salaama school for the blind was one of the stepping stones.
She added that depending on trees for charcoal would be no excuse to ruining the environment.
“Even if most of us still depend on charcoal to cook our meals, we need to continuously take the initiative to plant at least 2 trees for every tree that we cut down so we protect our environment. Today we are not only planting trees with the children of Salaama School for the Blind but also cascading a message to them that it’s important for all of us to preserve our environment and transform mindsets one person at a time.”
Moses Rutahigwa, the Head of Consumer, Private and Business Banking at Standard Chartered Bank said they were delighted to volunteer at Salaama School for the blind to demonstrate their attachment to the community in which they have operated and thrived for over 109 years.
‘’ We are therefore happy to connect and be part of the people whom we serve every single day as customers, to be able to help communities such as Salaama School for the blind, interact with disadvantaged children, hear the dreams of these young people and inspire them to pursue their dreams,’’ he said.
The Manager, Sustainability at Standard Chartered Bank Mr. Deus Turyatemba while speaking to the participants stated;
“As a visually impaired person myself, I am very inspired by the fact that my colleagues at Standard chartered Bank where I have worked for over 15 years now were able to interact with the visually impaired children. They have taken off time to learn a number of things from this special community which enables them to appreciate the challenges that the children face which opens up their minds.’’
The Headmaster of Salaama School for the Blind Mr. Francis Kinubi expressed his gratitude for the support they’ve been receiving from Standard Chartered Bank in form of renovations and donations of computers, braille machines, providing scholastic materials for visually impaired persons, donating white canes to ease movement of the blind children.
‘’ As a UPE school, Government supports us, however, our needs are many since most of the visually impaired children are brought to us from the community and most of their parents aren’t able to meet their expenses. Despite this, we never turn away any child so we depend on charity organizations and donors to sponsor them and to cater for the various needs of all the children. We appeal to more donors to assist us renovate the dilapidated school buildings, donate double decker beds so our children do not sleep down or to help us fence off our land and protect it from squatters.” he added.
Earlier this month, Standard Chartered Bank made a donation of One billion and fifty-six million Uganda shillings (Ugx 1,056,000,000) to their implementing partner – Voluntary Service Overseas at an event that was officiated by the Minister of State for Youth and Children Affairs – Hon. Sarah Mateke Nyirabashitsi.
The funds are earmarked to strengthen the capacity of young people, especially girls and people with disabilities, through provision of employability skills, entrepreneurship and improving their chances of getting jobs and empower youth to start up their own businesses.
The Bank is committed to work alongside Government and other stakeholders and is therefore undertaking several community projects in Northern Uganda and in Kampala and Wakiso districts to support Youth in agribusiness and youth entrepreneurs through the “Youth to work” programme among others.