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More donations flowing into the Covid-19 Relief Fund |22 January 2021

More donations flowing into the Covid-19 Relief Fund

Seychelles Football Federation (SFF)

By Laura Pillay

 

A number of businesses and charitable organisations yesterday called on President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House to hand over their donations and contributions to the newly established Covid-19 Relief Fund.

In total, eleven organisations jumped to the call for support and assistance, offering up financial resources as well as medical supplies, as the country is faced with a dire public health and economic crisis resulting from the pandemic.

The first to donate was JHL Ltd represented by James Lesperance, Peggy Delpech and Jade Lesperance who donated syringes to support the Ministry of Health in its national vaccination campaign, launched on January 10.

“In this time of crisis, we are donating towards the health sector. We donated 100,000 syringes to help as many people as possible in the shortest time, to give out the vaccines which will be helpful to the fishing, stevedore’s communities and those who work with us. Our company JHL is involved with fisheries, and if the pandemic worsens and we know that we can stock our fish for our workers to get vaccinated and they will be available to work to provide our communities with fish,” Mr Lesperance stated.

In addition to medical supplies, many organisations remitted financial contributions, the most significant of which were R1 million donations by insurance company H Savy Insurance, Mahé Shipping and the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF).

“The company donated R1 million towards the different efforts to try and address the issues brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. As a company, H Savy holds dear certain values that we work to. We believe in inclusive development whereby we work with our community, our clients so when the country is facing difficulties, we feel as though we have to come forward to play our role and do our part to help with the efforts,” said manager of corporate affairs at H Savy Insurance Marie-Paule Samson.

Similarly, chairperson of SFF, Elvis Chetty, in outlining the federation’s rationale in donating to the cause, said he hopes that the funding will be beneficial to the community at large, and especially the sporting community within Seychelles.

“The football federation received Covid-19 relief funding from Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and one of the ways in which we have decided to make use of the funding is to donate to the relief fund, as it is important to help the community and push the agenda for footballers and other sportsmen an opportunity to be vaccinated,” Mr Chetty said.

Other donors yesterday included the Ramani Trust Fund who donated R125,000, All Weather Builders who made available R200,000 while Bestway Plumbing and Nou Laboutik both contributed R100,000 each.

On behalf of the iconic Adam Moosa business group, Ayub and Yusuf Suleman presented to President Ramkalawan a cheque for R100,000 towards the fund. To the family, the contribution is an opportunity to help the community at large, while also honouring their ancestors who actively engaged with charitable causes.

“My great grandfather arrived in Seychelles over 100 years ago and as you may have heard, Adam Moosa was very charitable and would always contribute and help people, as there was no welfare system at the time, so we too decided to contribute. We are here to help, but we all need to do it. As soon as it was announced we too decided to chip in, as it is for the benefit of Seychelles. We are all Seychellois and this is to help Seychellois,” stated Mr Ayub Suleman.

“Our ancestors used to say every single drop of water collected could amount to an ocean, so all these donations that are coming in, I hope whether from individuals and companies, when added together will come to a sum that can help offer some relief to the economic crisis that we are faced with caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. I would ask everyone who can donate to do so, to show their solidarity to the government and the Seychellois people,” Mr Yusuf Suleman added.

Global company KW Investment Limited also joined the list of donors, making available USD ($) 10,000 towards the cause.

“We are an online brokerage platform who provides brokerage services to clients around the world using our own software. It offers clients the option to trading currencies, gold, cotton and so on. Although it is a global company, our head office is in Seychelles, and we are licensed in Seychelles so the owners thought we should give a contribution back to the economy especially in a situation like this whereby the government needs funds to sort out the Covid-19 related problems. As a result, we have donated $10,000 towards the fund today, and we have promised to provide more if need be, as a company, to support the work of the Covid-19 relief fund,” said representative Brijesh Jivan.

The accompanying photographs show representatives of the various businesses and organisations handing over their contributions to President Ramkalawan yesterday at State House.

 

Photos: Joena Meme

 

 

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