Coca-Cola hands over P40,000 sports storeroom to G-West JSS
Mqondisi Dube | Wednesday October 28, 2020 14:12
The school came second in the COPA Coca-Cola PET Recycling competition earlier this year, a joint campaign by Coca-Cola partnership with Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA), Somarela Tikologo and the secondary schools that participated in the COPA Coca-Cola football tournament for the PET Recycling competition.
The campaign was aimed at complementing and strengthening the country's efforts to keep the environment clean. At the same time, this enhanced Coca-Cola's effort to fulfill the World Without Waste goal of educating students about the importance of recycling for a litter-free environment. The programme, which commenced last year, encouraged pupils to collect PET bottles and taught about the importance of waste management. G-West JSS alongside Ledumadumane JSS came tops in the competition and bagged P40,000 for a school sports project.
During the handover ceremony, school authorities said they had initially wanted to build a sports ground, but due to financial constraints they settled for a sports office and storeroom.
'This gesture will go a long way in helping the school and we are very grateful. After we accessed the budget, it was decided that we build a sports storeroom. Our school sports equipment is scattered all over so we saw the need to have a safe place where we can keep it. Out of it also came an office for senior teacher-sports (School Sports Master). This was one of the things we have been crying about in terms of sports development in the school. The school has over time proven to be excelling in sports activities and with this gift we can only hope to do better. Coca-cola should know that in future they should think of us for any kind of gesture, for free as it is evident that the school would use the money wisely,' school head Godiraone Mathiba said.
For his part, Coca-Cola Beverages Botswana managing director, David Chait expressed delight over the manner the campaign was received by the secondary schools. He lauded G-West JSS for their efforts. “We are happy with the work that was done by our partners, the schools, BISA, Somarela Tikologo, a recycling company that worked with the schools, teaching them about the impact that waste has on the environment, what they can do with recyclable waste and the importance of keeping their environment clean. During the programme, pupils were encouraged to collect PET and today we see them being rewarded with this storeroom based on weight of plastics collected,' he said.