TELECOMMUNICATIONS giant, NetOne, has made a commitment to build a school in the remote Siachilaba area of Binga, Matabeleland North.
The school, Bunsiwa Primary, located 60km from Binga Centre, is home to over 220 learners in the marginalised community.
Under its corporate social investment portfolio, the company yesterday said it has a mandate to assist marginalised communities.
NetOne acting head of marketing and public relations Dennis Chagonda said the company had a mandate to assist the government in community building and development.
“As NetOne we seek to assist the government in delivering equal access to education for all,” said Chagonda.
“As part of the United Nations “Leaving No One Behind” mantra, NetOne is working towards including all communities in its developmental strategy. Bunsiwa Primary has an enrolment of over 220 students, but only has 23 sets of chairs and desks. This means about 200 students have nothing to use and spend the better part of their learning day under a tree.”
NetOne has made a commitment to assist the community by constructing state-of-the-art school blocks, offices, staff and strong rooms at Bunsiwa and also provide ICT equipment such as computers, printers and Wi-Fi.
“Covid-19 has exposed us in terms of the technology gaps between rural learners and their urban counterparts.
“We have in our plan as a corporate measure to reduce the gap through the provision of ICTs to make eLearning possible.
“The block in question is at the foundation level with construction set to kick start in less than 2 weeks. In this project NetOne partnered with the community of Siachilaba which has 9 villages,” Chagonda added.
NetOne commissioned Nachulwe Base station in Binga earlier this year in an event that was graced by the Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
NetOne’s corporate social investment strategy is broad and is targeting areas such as education, health, community empowerment projects, care initiatives, installation of base stations in marginalised communities and environmental protection.