LEMBA

By JUDITH  NAMUTOWE-
PROFLIGHT Zambia has teamed up with Appropriate Paper Technology (APTERS) charity to encourage young people to develop a money saving ethics and help disabled children in the process.
The Youth Day initiative would see APTERS create 60 hand-crafted “piggy banks” in the shape of Proflight-branded aeroplanes that would be given to children on the airline’s flights this week.
This is according to a statement issued in Lusaka yesterday. Proceeds paid by Proflight would be used by APTERS to help subsidise the cost of the mobility aids they make for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.
Proflight director of government and industry affairs Philip Lemba said “the team at APTERS is doing fantastic work to support less fortunate children and their families and it is a natural choice for Proflight Zambia to engage them to make these Youth Day gifts.”
Colourful piggy banks have a long history of encouraging children to save money by putting notes and coins in a slot where they were then kept safe until a target amount had been collected and could then be used to buy something special that the child had been saving up for, thus teaching them the value of money and instilling a savings habit.
Appropriate Paper Technology is based at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and was established in 1990 by three young enterprising and skilled physically challenged people with the aim of producing mobility aids for disabled children using recycled paper as the raw material.
The organisation also uses the same technology to make commercial products such as dustbins, file boxes, toys, trays and now piggy banks to fund the collection of paper and support its activities.