Airtel Uganda staff have today donated UGX 72,280,000/- to aid health workers at Uganda’s border posts in the fight against Covid-19.
The donation that will aid health workers at the border points of Elegu, Mutukula, Malaba and Busia is intended to procure Personal Protective Equipment.
Airtel Uganda recognizes that without an influx of urgently needed protective equipment, more healthcare workers may fall ill, reducing the availability of care for patients. They are working in stressful environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected and are themselves vulnerable to infection.
Speaking at the handover, Mrs. Flavia Lwanga, the Airtel Uganda Human Resources Director said; “A surge in the number of COVID-19 cases has been reported at the border towns increasing the infection risk for the frontline health care workers in these areas. It is upon this background that our staff decided to rally and collect money for this cause. Airtel staff members collected a total of UGX36,140,000/= that Airtel Uganda matched to make it a total of UGX72,280,000/=.”
The donation was handed over to the Office of the Prime Minister represented by Hon. Mary Okurut, the Minister in charge of General Duties and the Head of the Government Covid-19 Taskforce Mr. Emmanuel Katongole.
Speaking on behalf of the Covid-19 taskforce and health workers, Hon. Mary Okurut thanked Airtel Uganda and its staff for the continued support they have given to the government of Uganda and also congratulated them on the company’s 10th-year anniversary.
“This donation confirms Airtel Uganda’s commitment to this country not only as an invester, but a company interested in the development and well being of the citizens. Congratulations upon the 10 years,” Hon. Okurut said.
Recently, Airtel Uganda heed the government’s call for support in the fight against the pandemic and contributed UGX 1.25 billion to the Covid-19 taskforce among other steps to include;
- Guaranteeing network availability and stability by rolling out additional 50 sites during this period.
- Encouraging customers to embrace electronic transactions and the use of cashless modes of payment by removing all the charges on all on-net P2P (person to person) transactions, Bank to Wallet transactions, Airtel Money Pay and Wallet to Bank transactions.
- Free SMS Broadcasts by the Ministry of Health on COVID-19.
- Creating a Call Centre, within the Airtel Call Centre, for the Ministry of Health COVID-19 related calls and inquiries.
- Zero-rating the website for Ministry of Health, World Health Organization and many other websites where the public can access information from relevant authorities on the Pandemic as well as educational websites to enable students to get free access to education materials while at home.
- Introducing Airtime cashback for Community champions through our ‘Kyakabi Be The Champion’ promotion to encourage subscribers to stay at home and share airtime digitally with their families and friends while standing a chance to earn 3% back.
