Fredrick Moyo
The country’s leading logistics company SWIFT has donated 75 wheelchairs in 12 towns around the country while celebrating its 75th anniversary campaign under their “Together in Motion” campaign, a corporate social responsibility programme.
The campaign, which started in August 2021 at Swift depot will see 75 people who are in need of wheelchairs benefiting from the programme.
Speaking in an interview, Swift Marketing Manager, Lee Gibson said they started brain-storming about how they will celebrate their 75th anniversary after which they came up with the idea of helping the needy for their big milestone.
“We started brain storming on our 75th celebration last year because obviously it was going to be a whole year of celebrating this milestone,” said Gibson.
She also added that they are so much involved in many social activities around the country and they thought that giving back to the community will be a kind gesture to the disabled communities.
“We are so much involved in Corporate Social Responsibility. It is something that we are engaged in every single day, so the greatest gift that we thought we could give back is the gift of Motion, and that is when we thought about giving back to the disabled communities in Zimbabwe and the need is huge.
“They have evaluated to us that 25 000 disabled people in Zimbabwe are in need of wheelchairs. So our 75 is a very small, small target that we managed to distribute, but it is our part and we wanted, we have managed to reach 12 towns to distribute the 75 wheelchairs we have purchased,” added Gibson.
Chief Executive Officer of Unifreight Africa Limited, Swift’s parent company, Rob Kuipers, said that they looked at how they can be agents of motion and started with donating wheelchairs to the disadvantaged communities and he also encouraged other corporates and individuals to join the initiative.
“As a logistics company, enabling movement from point A to B is our highest priority. We looked at how we can be an agent of motion to some of our most disadvantaged community members and started at wheelchairs. We are rallying individuals and corporates to join this initiative across the nation,” said Kuipers.
Public Relations officer and Marketing Director for Unifreight Africa Limited, Kerne Mackie added that the leading logistics company in the country have been involved for many decades in donations.
“SWIFT Transport has been assisting with the distribution of wheelchairs throughout Zimbabwe for many decades, coming to the aid of numerous charities. Having seen the need first-hand as a company, we wanted to contribute and give back to the communities that have always supported us,” added Mackie.
Grace Kamanga, Jairos Jiri’s Resource Mobilisation Executive said that the life of children living with disabilities has been difficult especially in this period of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The need to assist children with disabilities has been heightened in this difficult Covid-19 pandemic era. We had a specific challenge that some of our Grade 1 and Form 4 students had no wheelchairs and the timing of this donation could not have been more precise,” said Kamanga.
Stella Jongwe, a Jairos Jiri student representative who received a wheelchair thanked SWIFT for the kindly gesture and the support they give them in many activities.
“It is heart-warming that Swift continues to support us through many activities. I am particularly elated with the wheelchair gesture as it really makes a huge difference when you have disability,” said Jongwe.
The transport and freight service provider has ploughed back to the community through donating wheelchairs and food hampers to people living with disabilities.
