The Marketers Association of Zimbabwe on Friday, January 10, 2020 donated sunscreen lotions to the Zimbabwe Albino Association (ZIMAS).

The sunscreen lotions worth thousands of dollars were bought from proceeds raised during the Annual Charity Golf tournament held in August 2019.

The Golf organising committee had initially mooted the idea of ‘Donate a hat campaign’ to buy hats for people with albinism but later decided to buy sunscreen lotions as they are a basic need to them.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, MAZ Executive Secretary, Gillian Rusike said the donation was among the Corporate Social Responsibility activites for the Association.

“This is a very needy product for people with albinism and we felt that we have to share with those that are in need hence we undertook our golf tournament where we invited a lot of corporates to partner with us and we raised funds to purchase the sunscreen lotion.

So today, we are very much excited that the day has come, the effort of the professionals is now evidenced by the handover of these lotions,” he said.

Rusike said the donation was meant to benefit members in disadvantaged communities.

“These are about 200 bottles that we are giving you to make sure that all your members in disadvantaged communities also benefit from this, so we have come today to do the handover”.

“We really want to thank all the companies that came on board , participated in the golf tournament and the committee that sits down to plan and make sure that we achieve our objectives,” said Rusike.

He added: “As a profession we have started our year on a good note by coming to you to say we are together in this , this is our gesture , it might look small but I can tell you the the effort that has been put in this is quite big”.

 A members of ZIMAS, Kudakwashe who received the lotions thanked MAZ for the kind gesture.

“Thank you very much Marketers Association for this noble idea. We are very grateful because people with albinism benefit a lot from these lotions. If we do not apply sunscreen lotion and we are exposed to the sun, we are likely to suffer from skin cancer.

The sunscreen lotion is some sort from prevention from skin cancer. We are very grateful and all those who participated in the golf tournament in order to raise these,” he said.

ZIMAS director, Mercy Maunganidze-Chimhanga also expressed gratitude and highlighted that the lotions would be distributed to their members in rural communities.

“We are so grateful as the Zimbabwe Albino Association for the gesture that we received from the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe  for the sunscreen lotions and these will go a long way in assisting persons with albinism here in Zimbabwe”.

“We will distribute these sunscreen lotions to the rural areas because these are the critical areas where persons with albinism cannot afford to buy a single bottle of sunscreen lotions,” she said.

She said prices for sunscreen lotions were steep as they are going for an equivalent of US$12 and one needed about three to four bottles a month.

Present at the handover ceremony were staff members from both associations, golf committee member, Matipedza Lole and members of the media.

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