R900,000 more donated to Indian Ocean games |29 March 2011

Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vincent Meriton made the appeal after another group of generous donors contributed to the games.

The Seychelles Trading Company (STC) and Mason’s Travel are now listed among the many friends of the games.
They were in the group of 10 who gave generously yesterday afternoon in a short ceremony held at the games headquarters at Oceangate House. The STC gave R500,000 and Mason’s Travel R300,000.

Also present at the handover were principal secretary for Youth and Sports Denis Rose and the Games commissioner Eric Arnephie, as well as representatives from the different sponsors.

“We have started small by collecting cents that have accumulated to become thousands of rupees, and we are now playing in the millions,” said Mr Meriton.

“We have to thank the school children who are also contributing to the cause, the small companies and the districts who have made an effort so that we have collected nearly R900,000 today, out of the R42 million we need for the games,” he said.

In his speech to thank the donors, Mr Meriton said he is grateful for all the help received to make the games a success.

“The money we have collected will be put to good use, either by paying for meals or paying for transport,” he said.

“I would also like to announce today that we have paid for all the heavy equipment we will be using during the games. Although there might be a few things left, we are satisfied as the money we have received has helped us pay for the biggest expenses.

“There is of course some more money left in our account, and there are other organisations that are continuing to donate generously to us – we plan to use that on other expenses such as food and transport.”

Others who contributed to the games yesterday afternoon were La Retraite primary school and the State Assurance Company Limited.

R. G.