Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an integral business practice globally and the First Mutual group has demonstrated this through the launch of the First Mutual Scholarship Fund with Reformed Church University.
The main objective of the RCU First Mutual Scholarship fund is an added opportunity for the expansion of the First Mutual Foundation whose main objective to afford bursaries and ancillary support to primary school children with multiple vulnerabilities.
The First Mutual Scholarship fund will assist beneficiaries from the Reformed Church University with financial support based on humanitarian need and academic merit. The commitment by First Mutual for the scholarship fund of $20 000,00 per year for a period of four years amounting to $80 000,00 will cover tuition, boarding, fees and living expenses for six(6) potential beneficiaries and will be reviewed after the duration of the contract in year 2021.
Speaking at the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony, the Group Chief Executive Officer of First Mutual Holdings Limited Mr Douglas Hoto said, “The partnership with Reformed Church is one that we value as it is aligned to one of our core values which is ‘care’. As a responsible corporate citizen we care about the environment and communities within which we operate. We applaud the Reformed Church University of Zimbabwe for going beyond in the extension of their brand to include a university and particularly in special needs education which deals with learners with disabilities. Their ethos of continuous improvement and relevance to the Zimbabwean landscape is aligned to our ethos as a group. We believe in bringing economic dignity to our customers and this partnership is aimed at improving the lot of selected economically disadvantaged, gifted recipients reflects our brand positioning as we all work together to empower the recipients through education”.
In his response, the Vice Chancellor for the Reformed Church University Professor Wiseman Magwa expressed his appreciation to First Mutual for the initiative which will go a long way to support the university whose bias is towards students with special needs and are physically incapacitated. “We are greatly humbled to accept this this noble commitment by First Mutual to support our institution which is a first of its kind since the inception of the University and we pledge our support for the implementation of the scholarship. We are proud to be associated with First Mutual,” he said.
First Mutual’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme also extends to sports in schools through the partnership with the National Association of Secondary Schools (NASH) which promote sports in secondary schools.
