Kansanshi Mining plc has over the last four years spent about K860 million towards supporting Solwezi Technical High School.
The support the mining company has rendered to the school ranges from donation of laboratory equipment, replacement of broken window panes, rehabilitation of dormitories and classrooms and the latest being the donation of six industrial cooking pots and two conventional cookers with ovens all worth K345 million.
Kansanshi Mine Public Relations Manager Godfrey Msiska disclosed this when he handed over the six industrial cooking pots and two conventional cookers to the school yesterday.
Mr. Msiska said rendering assistance to learning institutions such as Solwezi Technical High School, was in line with the Kansanshi Mine’s social responsibility aimed at empowering the local community within which the company operates.
He said the mining company saw the need to improve infrastructure in learning institutions to ensure that the environment is conducive for studies which would in turn translate into better
results from students.
Mr. Msiska expressed hope that the other players in the corporate world would render similar assistance to improve the conditions in institutions of learning as this was an absolute necessity if the nation was to make unprecedented economic development.
He said Kansanshi Mine realized that the school had been spending substantial amounts of money on rehabilitating the old cookers whenever they broke down, which forced the school to turn to firewood
as fuel energy for cooking food, which he said was not sustainable.
Receiving the donation on behalf of the school, Provincial Education Officer Jennipher Malama said, the gesture made by Kansanshi Mine was a step in the right direction and that it was in line with the government’s policy of Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Ms. Malama said, the donation would go a long way in alleviating the problems the school had been facing, as the equipment would be quickening the preparation of meals in a clean environment.
She urged the school management and the students to guard the equipment jealously.
ENDS/MM/ZANS