Bank pledges to assist vulnerable

Thu, 24 Nov 2016 13:24:37 +0000

STANDARD Chartered Bank has celebrated 110 years existence in Zambia with pupils from new Kanyama Primary School in Lusaka.

Standard Chartered chief executive officer, Andrew Okai, urged the pupils to concentrate on their studies and achieve their goals.

Mr Okai said 7,500 girls have benefited from the bank’s Goal empowerment programme and it will continue helping the vulnerable in society, especially the girl child.

“Let this 110 years mark the beginning of a new journey for yourselves. The essence of your goal is to bring life skills training, ranging from different sports activities, and if you make wrong decisions in life it will affect you, your family, community and the country,” said Mr Okai.

He said the bank was not only after making profit in Zambia but also to work with the community and ensure the community benefited.

National Organization for Women in Sport (physical activity and recreation) executive director Matilda Mwaba said the organization will continue promoting women’s rights through sport and they should be given a platform to participate in any sports activities.

“Through our partnership with Standard Charted on the Goal project which started in 2014, we reached 7,500 through a girl’s empowerment program. Their support to this project has been seen through their continuous contribution to the girls’ empowerment program and giving financial talks during events like this,” said Ms Mwaba.

Ms Mwaba thanked the bank for their continued support towards the empowerment of girls which had put a lot of smiles on thousands of them across Zambia.

And new Kanyama Primary School head teacher, Severiano Zulu, said the school was faced with many challenges, among them the high pupil-teacher ratio due to lack of classroom blocks and a science laboratory.

He appealed to the bank to build them a one by 1 x 3 classroom block and buy them some computers because the school had 3,079 pupils.

Meanwhile, United States Ambassador to Zambia Mr Eric Schultz said the United States will continue uplifting the lives of school children especially girls who were more vulnerable in society.