The evening of Wednesday, 27 October; saw Nedbank Namibia and MTC officially hand over two houses to the two Namibian Olympians; Christine Mboma, and Beatrice Masilingi; during the Davin Sports Trust Wine Pairing Auction event at the Windhoek Country Club and Resort.
The housing project was initiated in 2020 by Nedbank Namibia when representatives from the bank attended a dinner hosted by the Janine & Suzelle Davin Sport Trust, which is a Namibian charity organization that aims to nurture and develop young sport stars.
At the 2020 event, Athletics coach, Henk Botha, was awarded a platform to speak on his athletics developmental programme. He introduced Beatrice Masilingi as one of the athletes he was training, and in his address he gave a brief overview of Masilingi’s background and requested for any contributions to aid her in her cause of achieving the dream of becoming one of the greatest athletes the country will ever produce.
That night Nedbank Namibia pledged to construct a house for Masilingi, which was influenced by the fact that she and her grandmother had been staying in an informal settlement in the town of Rundu, situated in the Kavango East Region.
After Masilingi and now Christine Mboma, arriving on the athletics scene and scooping international accolades at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, MTC came on board to collaborate with Nedbank Namibia in the construction of Masilingi’s house and added Mboma to the list of beneficiaries.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, Nedbank Namibia Chief Financial Officer, JG van Graan, applauded the Davin Sports Trust for their contributions to the Namibians sports fraternity, and for assisting in making sure Masilingi realizes the dream of building a house for her grandmother.
“The Davin Sports Trust is about hope, inspiration, and changing people livelihoods; and Beatrice and Christine are prime examples of exactly that. Two years ago, before they became household names in Namibia and on the international front, Beatrice shared her dream of providing a proper house for her grandmother, and now two years later, we are proud of officially handing over the key to her house, not only to Beatrice, but to Christine as well,” Van Graan mentioned.
