Pure Oil Industries trading as Zimgold, has proved that it not only operating in the country to just generate profits, but rather to also serve the society and impact it in a positive and meaningful way when it honoured charitable organisations and community heroes with one-year supplies of cooking oil.
Speaking at the Pure Oil Industries’ 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility event held at the company’s Zimgold premises, the company’s Executive Chairman, Mr. PK Ganediwal said since they have a presence in a number of countries in the SADC region, it focuses on developing and growing together with the society and community in which they operate in.
One of the CSR investment of the company is the scholarship initiative. This initiative is the brainchild of His Excellency Ambassador Ras Masakui, India’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe.
“When he mentioned the idea to me it immediately resonated with me because like the ambassador, I tremendously value education as a bedrock not only for the growth of industry but also as an avenue by which we can make Zimbabwe’s academically gifted youth reach their potential and realise their dreams. The initiative is therefore a joint effort between Pure Oil Industries and the Indian Embassy of Zimbabwe,” Mr. Ganediwal said.
Lovejoy Gushungo and Sosten Magweva emerged as the beneficiaries of the scholarship out of a lengthy and thorough exercise which looked at academic excellence as well as the financial constraint of the beneficiary to pursue their scholarly dreams among other criteria. Lovejoy and Sosten are the first batch of students and pioneers of the scholarship programme. They will be pursuing a two years Masters’ Degrees in Manufacturing and Materials Engineering at the highly prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad (IIT). The institute is part of a group of highly regarded group of Indian Institutes consistently ranked among the top engineering colleges in the world.
The students will receive full sponsorship covering tuition, boarding, travel expenses and other associated costs. It is the vision of Pure Oil Industries group that the academic programs being embarked upon by the two students will have a positive impact on them as people as they will get an opportunity to learn new cultures.
Professor Rosemary Moyana, speaking on behalf of the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education expressed her gratitude for the scholarship she said was a CSR initiative targeting various members of society including, orphans, the elderly as well as scholars.
“As the Minister of Education, I am particularly elated that the initiative has also targeted two brilliant students who will be both pursuing a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in India by giving them a full board scholarship covering all financial needs that are in pursuance to their studies. It is my hope that at the end of their studies, the two students will bring their skills and contribute to the development and growth of our beautiful country.
“As government we have a big vision for the country which includes raising the standard of living of all our people, but we are constrained by resources. To fill the gap, we need the corporate sector to complement government efforts. Corporate social responsibility initiatives such as this one by Pure Oil goes a long way in closing the gap and on behalf of my ministry and government I would like to express our profound gratitude to Pure Oil Directors and management on this noble and thoughtful gesture and encourage you to continue in the same vein in the years to come,” Prof Moyana said.
Mr. Vikash Agarwal, the Managing Director of Pure Oils Industries said today’s function was an important date on the company’s calendar and is an occasion that helps convey a fundamental aspect of their corporate philosophy and identity as an organisation namely, identifying and giving back to the vulnerable members as well as the heroes who have been doing wonderful works in the community. This is the third year running that Pure Oils has an event of this nature and each year they sought to expand its magnitude in terms of the publics targeted and the donation given.
The event started in 2017 initially as just an end of year donation to a number of handpicked institutions responsible for taking care of the vulnerable members of the society.
Apart from the donation of cooking oil, soap and butter, the company’s CSR work has seen it working on Water and Sanitation projects. In areas like Chivhu, they sank boreholes to help bring clean water to the local communities there.
“We were also some of the first responders to the cyclone Idai catastrophe where we donated cooking oil and blankets running into thousands of dollars. We have also donated more than 10 000 blankets through various NGOs for use in public hospitals,” Mr. Agarwal said.
This year, Pure Oils identified twelve homes, including Children’s homes, Old people’s homes and other rehabilitation centres and orphanages that each received 10 boxes of Zimgold cooking oil and 5 boxes of Zimbrite Soap. These vulnerable members of the society have been chosen right across the breath of the country and the company hopes to grow the list of beneficiaries as it grows and expands as an organisation.
This year the company thought it worthwhile to recognise a special category of people who are the heroes of the community. These are people who despite the challenges they also face have acted selflessly to help other society members. Pure Oil honoured this group of special people by giving them a year’s supply of cooking oil. Among the beneficiaries are Mbuya Esther Zinyoro, a midwife from Mbare who has helped over 250 women to deliver babies in her 2-roomed apartment.
Veteran actress Rhoda Mtembe, popularly known as Mai Sorobhi in yesteryear drama “Paraffin” was also a beneficiary because of her role in providing entertainment to many people on television.