MBDA teams up with Nelson Mandela University to #MaskUp communities

12 June 2020: The Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), an entity of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, teamed up with the Nelson Mandela University's Visual Arts Department to deliver the first batch of a uniquely designed masks to Cape Racife School in Summerstrand.

This initiative follows another delivery on Thursday, 11 June, at the Khulile Primary School in Motherwell, where the MBDA-operated science and technology centre provided over 300 items of World Health Organisation (WHO) compliant masks and sanitisers.

Professor Pieter Binsbergen of the NMU, a member of the university's COVID-19 responses, says: "Cape Recife School is the first stop to receive 100 masks and COVID-19 prevention information fliers as part of the #MaskUpMandela initiative supported through funding by the MBDA. It made sense for the university to start here, a neighbouring school for physically challenged learners. We must prioritise the most vulnerable in communities."

According to the school's vision statement: "Cape Recife High School strives to excel in providing quality education and support services for learners with special education needs, to empower them to lead meaningful lives as productive members of society, being well prepared for the future."

On hand to receive the masks was school principal, Jacques Hugo, who thanked the university and the MBDA for coming to the rescue with the important COVID-19 PPE.

MBDA Spokesperson, Luvuyo Bangazi, said: "The agency is satisfied that the most deserving and most vulnerable are receiving support through the partnership with the university. Also important to us is the empowerment and capacitation of smaller enterprises' inclusive development, as we know that the masks were produced through a co-operative."