Nedbank Namibia and MTC officially handed over two houses to Olympians Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi during the Davin Sports Trust Wine Pairing Auction event at the Windhoek Country Club and Resort last week.
The housing project was initiated in 2020 by Nedbank Namibia when representatives from the bank attended a dinner hosted by the Janine and Suzelle Davin Sport Trust, which is a Namibian charity organisation that aims to nurture and develop young sports stars.
At the 2020 event, athletics coach Henk Botha was awarded a platform to speak on his athletics developmental programme.
He introduced Beatrice Masilingi as one of the athletes he was training and in his address gave a brief overview of Masilingi’s background and requested any contributions to aid her in her cause of achieving the dream of becoming one of the greatest athletes in the country will ever produce.
That night, Nedbank Namibia pledged to construct a house for Masilingi, which was influenced by the fact that she and her grandmother had been staying in an informal settlement in the town of Rundu, situated in the Kavango East region.
After Masilingi, and now Christine Mboma, arrived on the athletics scene and scooped international accolades at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, MTC came on board to collaborate with Nedbank Namibia in the construction of Masilingi’s house and added Mboma to the list of beneficiaries.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Nedbank Namibia chief financial officer JG van Graan applauded the Davin Sports Trust for their contributions to the Namibian sports fraternity, and for assisting in making sure Masilingi realises the dream of building a house for her grandmother.
“The Davin Sports Trust is about hope, inspiration and changing people’s livelihoods, and Beatrice and Christine are prime examples of exactly that. Two years ago, before they became household names in Namibia and on the international front, Beatrice shared her dream of providing a proper house for her grandmother – and now two years later, we are proud to officially hand over the key to her house – not only to Beatrice but Christine as well,” Van Graan said.
“Beatrice and Christine, you’ve provided hope and inspiration to the entire Namibian nation. Continue doing what you do – but most importantly, the help and support you’ve received today and will still receive, pay it forward to your families, to your communities – and more importantly, to the generations to come,” Van Graan added.
The integral part of the housing project has been completed, with the grand handover ceremony to be held at the two champion’s houses in Rundu next year.