SDA Church donates P200 thousand to COVID-19 Relief Fund
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA) has donated the sum of P200, 000.00 to the COVID-19 Relief Fund. The SDA Church in Botswana is administered by Botswana Union Conference and has two regional administrative centres - North Botswana Conference (Francistown) and South Botswana Conference (Mogoditshane).
The Church owns several entities, among them Kanye SDA Hospital, Kanye SDA College of Nursing, Botswana Adventist Medical Services, and Moshupa SDA Clinic. President of the Botswana Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Dr. Kenaope Kenaope confirmed to this publication that the church indeed made the donation. In a letter addressed to all church organs and passed to Botswana Guardian, Kenaope announced the donation was made in solidarity with the Government efforts to mitigate against the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that in response to the national call to contribute funds (or in-kind) to the COVID-19 Relief Fund, the Botswana Union Conference (BUC) Executive Committee authorised and contributed the sum of P200, 000.00 (Pula Two Hundred Thousand Only) on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church community, to the fund.
“The said amount was transferred to the Bank of Botswana COVID-19 Relief Fund account on Thursday April 09, 2020”.
Kenaope expressed hope that the contribution is "our social responsibility" as a church to partner with all those who are supporting the Government of Botswana to address the effects of the COVID-19 scourge.
"We encourage our members who are financially able to voluntarily support this government initiative over and above what the SDA Church as an entity has contributed,” he implored. SDA entered Kanye Village in then Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1921 through its medical missionary work and this was followed by its preaching work in 1922/1923. By December 31, 2019, Kenaope said it had a membership of 47, 354 baptised members.
Kenaope encouraged congregants to adhere to the guidelines provided by MoHW and WHO, such as extreme social distancing and washing hands as often as possible with soap and clean water. “Much more, we pray for the frontline medical teams as they do their best to manage the situation and also encourage all of us to unite our efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
