Fight against ancer continues
Managing Director of Bank Windhoek, Christo de Vries handing over to Reinette Koegelenberg, CEO of Cancer Association of Namibia
The hand-over was done by Managing Director of Bank Windhoek, Christo de Vries. He said, “I have a special relationship with the Bank Windhoek Cancer Apple project, as it was my very first assignment to officiate at a Bank Windhoek event back in 2011, more than three years on, I am still amazed at how Namibians can stand together to work towards a common cause.”
This year’s project was dedicated to the late, Quinton-Steele Botes, who was a friend and partner at Bank Windhoek. Botes passed away on 23 June 2014 after a long battle with cancer.
He added, “We do not have to look at official statistics to know that the number of reported cancer cases in Namibia is rapidly increasing. Many of us here today know of friends, family or colleagues who have cancer.”
He applauded the efforts by the Cancer Association of Namibia to create awareness about the dreadful disease and to care for patients who suffer from cancer. The annual cancer apple project is now in its 14th year, and is one of the country’s biggest and most successful fund raising projects, involving all citizens from all the regions.
According to de Vries, the continued growth and success of the project can be attributed to the hard work and dedication from all the parties involved, from the staff members of Bank Windhoek, Fruit and Veg City, Namibia Fresh Produce Market, Nampost, H&H Furniture Removals, FedEx, Maerua Super Spar and Radio Wave, and staff members and volunteers of the Cancer Association of Namibia as well as the packers in the stores.
“It is always a good practice to reflect and assess a long standing project to ensure that the project remains relevant and effective. We took a bold decision to change the format of the apple project. Not only did the price increase from N$3 to N$5, we also added an entrepreneurial challenge for our branches and departments whereby they were each given a small amount of seed capital from the bank, and asked to use it to organise their own fund raising project,” he explained.
For this year’s edition, Bank Windhoek introduced a voucher system enabling apples to be sold through vouchers and then redeemed at the local Spar or Fruit&Veg city over a three month period, Said de Vries, “Furthermore we only started with the project in June, whereas in the past, the project was launched in March.” He added that these were all significant changes and Bank Windhoek was grateful that all of their long standing partners supported them in their decision and joined hands with them to make this work.
More than 440 schools competed to be the winning school and share in the N$25,500 prize money. Each winning school received a cash prize of N$5,000, while second places received N$2,000 and third place received N$1,500. The prizes were awarded in the categories of pre-primary, primary and secondary schools.
