Marythar Shimwe
Members of the Chinese business fraternity in the Zambezi region handed over food parcels with a combined value of $54 920 that will be distributed to poor households within the community.
This is the second time Chinese business people have donated food parcels to help communities cope with the hardships brought about since the emergence of the global Covid-19 that forced many businesses to close down, causing widespread job losses in tourism, construction, retail and other sectors.
The donated parcels consisted of 5kg of maize meal, 2kg sugar, 2lt of cooking oil, canned fish and 125 grams of bar soap.
Shudong Geng, the representative of the Chinese business community, said: “When this epidemic started, it affected everyone. China and Namibia are friends – and at the beginning of this sudden epidemic, our Chinese business people in Katima Mulilo also incurred financial losses.” “We actively responded to the calling of the Namibian government and tried our level best to raise funds, knocking door to door within our Chinese business community in Katima Mulilo. So far, we purchased some food packages, to give to the local community through the governor’s office,” said Shudong, who added: “We hope this donation will bring the love of Chinese people to the community. Let us join hands as we hope and believe that we can overcome this pandemic soon”.
According to the governor of the Zambezi region, Lawrence Sampofu, since the start of the pandemic, Namibians have become vulnerable in the sense that they do not have enough food.
“Our government, alone, cannot give everybody or satisfy all the needs of the community, so we thank the Chinese community in Katima Mulilo for giving us this donation and we will make sure that this donation will reach the intended beneficiaries,” reiterated the Zambezi governor. He further said that “the donation will be distributed to Katima Mulilo Urban and Sibbinda constituencies, as other constituencies already benefitted from previous Chinese donations.
“We are looking forward to other businesses to emulate what the Chinese community is doing in our region to provide food to our vulnerable community,” he said.