Shoe Donation Brings Dignity To Disadvantaged Learners

 

For Immediate Release:  

Wednesday 30 January 2019

A Durban-based bank has launched a national school shoe distribution initiative, aimed at putting

brand new shoes on the feet of some of South Africa's most needy youngsters.
Launching its 2019 shoe distribution programme, Al Baraka Bank's Acting Chief Risk Executive, Mr
Ebrahim Hassan, said: "The harsh reality is that huge numbers of our young learners are simply
unable to afford basic schooling needs. This poses enormous socio-economic challenges for the
country and we believe that business has a responsibility to assist in impacting on the poverty trap in
which so many of our people are mired."
The bank's intervention, providing footwear to some 400 primary school children in three centres
around the country, follows a similar programme launched last year which saw hundreds of learners
across South Africa presented with school shoes.
"We have identified three schools in Durban, Cape Town and Lenasia, in which learner needs are
absolutely critical and have distributed new shoes to a total of 400 desperately disadvantaged
youngsters," he said of the corporate social investment initiative.
The bank has provided 200 learners with shoes at Sibonginhlanhla Primary School, at Waterloo, near
Verulam on the outskirts of Durban, and 100 pairs of shoes going to learners at Aberdare Primary
School in Cape Town and a further 100 pairs being donated to learners at Zodiac Primary School in
Lenasia.
Mr Hassan said: "Our young people must be comfortable in order to learn and develop at school.
Those lacking the basics, such as school shoes, uniforms and stationery, are at a greater
disadvantage than their better equipped counterparts - a situation which is not conducive to the
effective and uniform education of our learners. It is the lives of these significantly deprived
youngsters that we want to touch with our corporate social investment initiative."
He added: "The bank is well aware that South Africa faces daunting social challenges. We are intent
on utilising our long-standing corporate social investment programme, operational in three sectors,
health, community upliftment and education to make a positive impact, no matter how small, to
assist in developing and empowering the disadvantaged, regardless of race, religion or gender."

ends
Issued By: Assegai & Javelin
On Behalf Of: Al Baraka Bank
Media Enquiries: For information about Al Baraka Bank and its CSI programme, contact:
Mr Yunus Paruk, Marketing Manager,
Mobile: 083 786 2675
Email: yunusp@albaraka.co.za