Soft-drink manufacturer, Coca-Cola handed over a sports storeroom and office worth $4,000 (approximately P40,000) to Gaborone West Junior Secondary School) on Wednesday.

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

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.