Leading telecommunications giant MTC on Thursday donated 90 blankets to orphans and vulnerable children in Tsumeb.
The blankets, valued at N$9 000, were handed over to senior staff at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare and are to be distributed to the TOV Multipurpose Centre (30 blankets) and Tsumeb Hope Children's Centre (40), while the rest will be handed to other care centres in the town.
The donation of blankets forms part of the company's MTC Cares initiative, which has so far donated a total of 3 000 blankets to OVCs across Namibia since the beginning of 2009.
The initiative has been a collaborative undertaking with the Ministry of Women, Equity and Child Welfare, which have identified institutions working with OVCs countrywide. The blankets will be used for the children living at these institutions who are in real need of the winter essentials.
“MTC is the people's company and as such we have an obligation to give back to the people and to stimulate national economic growth in all that we do. The blanket donation is therefore taking place in that spirit,” said Isack Hamata, MTC's Manager of Sponsorships and Promotions.
He added: “Through the modest gesture, the children would now not have to worry about protection during cold winter nights, but they would focus on other positive things such as getting a better education to become the leaders of tomorrow.”
Social worker in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Alet Jansen, expressed appreciation for the donation and thanked MTC for reaching out to the vulnerable children in Tsumeb. “You have no idea what your donation means to our little ones and we don't even have the words to thank you enough. The blankets just came at the right time, considering that the nights are becoming unbearable for the children,” Jansen noted.
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MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Limited) was established in 1995 as a joint venture between Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH), Telia and Swedfund. During May 2004, NPTH concluded a deal that saw it hold 100% of the shares in MTC by acquiring the 49% held by Telia Overseas AB and Swedfund International AB. During 2006, the sale of 34% of MTC shares to Portugal Telecom was concluded for N$1.34 billion while the Namibian government retains the remainder of the stake through NPTH.
MTC currently covers 98% of the population of nearly 2 million citizens with more than 650 base stations and repeaters and offers a dual band 900/1800MHZ. The company also expanded its cellular coverage to all major towns in Namibia, including the major arterial roads. It further runs two modern MSCs (mobile switching centre) in Windhoek and Oshakati, with capacity to accommodate the rapidly rising number of customers of over 1.3 million active users. MTC also operates the only 24-hour full service customer contact centre in Namibia dealing with service queries ranging from telephony, SMS, fax, GPRS, data, voicemail and 3G/HSDPA. A staff of 367 persons serves a diverse market of both pre- and post-paid subscribers. http://www.mtc.com.na
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