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Social investment
As a socially responsible company, Datatec is cognisant of the scale and complexity of the social and environmental problems faced in South Africa. Datatec’s origins are firmly entrenched in South Africa and the Company has always been conscious of its responsibilities towards the community and economy that fostered its initial growth. Datatec has therefore elected to proactively contribute to addressing some of these issues through its corporate social investment (CSI) programme.
The Datatec Educational and Technology Trust
During the year ended 28 February 2011, the Group and its employees enthusiastically pursued their commitment to support local communities through donations and voluntary work. The Datatec Educational and Technology Trust continued to support educational projects in South Africa. The Datatec board has committed to annual funding of R4 million and in the current year this was spent on supporting a variety of organisations dedicated to improving education in previously disadvantaged communities in South Africa. The following initiatives received the trust’s support:
Vula Programme at Hilton College
The Vula Programme is a division of The Hiltonian Society, the legal entity which owns and operates Hilton College. Hilton College is a well-known and reputable boys independent secondary school which is situated near the village of Hilton in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. The school, which opened in 1872, has a proud history of academic, cultural, sporting and outreach excellence.
The Vula Programme at Hilton College (“vula” means “open” in isiZulu) was started in 2001 as the society’s educational service provider to the under-resourced schools and disadvantaged communities in the region. At the time Datatec donated R3 million to build a Centre for Innovation. This centre has been the base for Hilton College’s maths, science and technology outreach programme.
The programme uses up-to-date technologies, innovative teaching methods and experienced facilitators to concentrate on the upgrading of the teaching and learning of high school mathematics, physical science and technology.
The programme is underpinned by a belief that access to, and training in, information communication technologies must be an integral part of the skills transfer process when providing relevant and meaningful programmes to its beneficiary communities.
In the 2011 financial year the programme worked with teachers and learners from about 90 high schools.
These schools are in the greater Midlands area which extends from Pietermaritzburg in the south to Bergville in the north and from Bulwer in the west to Msinga in the east. More than half of the schools are in impoverished rural areas.
The beneficiaries of the Vula Programme are 100% black (as defined in the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice) and donors are able to record their contributions on industry score sheets for B-BBEE purposes.
In the 2011 financial year the trust provided funding for the following programme components:
• The Vula Programme annual careers day
• A portion of the costs of the Grade 12 mathematics and science revision week
• A contribution towards the cost of an administrative assistant for the Vula Programme
• The Vula educators ICT training, enrichment and empowerment project (the second year of a three-year project).
The Maharishi Institute
The Maharishi Institute was created in 2007 to take accessible tertiary education to another level, to showcase South Africa as a leading innovator in education provision, and create a worldwide breakthrough using the approach of Consciousness-Based Education.
The Maharishi Institute combines three business models into one: tertiary and vocational education, technology training, and entrepreneurship in action. This concept enables students to gain valuable workplace experience while at the same time being able to pay for their studies and cover some of their living costs. In this way they are able to focus on their studies more, lead a life of greater dignity during their study years and increase their chances of entering employment on completion. We predict a significant increase in the number of students who are able to complete their education, thus increasing the “return” on the education investment.
The trust provided the funding to set up the network infrastructure at the campus as well as their call centre. This learn-and-earn model gives students the opportunity to gain work experience by working in the call centre and at the same time earn money to pay for their studies. The call centre is fully operational now and a number of contracts have been secured from a variety of organisations. In addition the trust also provides funding for ongoing IT and infrastructure support.
Education Alive
Established in 1975, Education Alive has been a front-runner in the fight against poor quality education in South Africa, specifically in the disadvantaged communities throughout our country where maths and science capacity had never been fully developed. Education Alive is affiliated to Applied Scholastics International – an educational group that has developed outstanding curriculum material over a number of years. The Education Alive training academy is in Wynberg, Cape Town and was bought by the trust in 2006 and the use of the facility was donated to Education Alive.
Education Alive’s core aim is to assist learners in poorly funded and resourced schools in notoriously disadvantaged areas of South Africa. In the 2011 financial year we realised these aims through the following:
• The Reading Adventure Room Programme: A literacy programme introduced into three schools in the Winelands region in 2010 and expanded to include three additional schools in the Cape Flats in 2011. The project components include the renovation of a classroom into a reading wonderland with meadow-themed painted walls, toys and stationery; printing of materials for more than 400 Grade 1 learners and 25 teachers in 2011; and comprehensive teacher training to equip all teachers with the skills to implement this magnificent programme. Our 2010 results have been astounding, with literacy rates in Grade 1 classes having improved by 36% from 2009 to 2010 following the introduction of this programme.
• The Matric Enrichment Programme: This programme was offered to the entire matric class of Wittebome High School in Wynberg in 2010. The programme included educator training for all of the Grade 12 teachers; a full-time holiday programme that was offered during the extended June/July holiday period; and exam preparation sessions during the September holidays. This programme also proved to be immensely successful with the overall matric pass rate increasing from 65% in 2009 to 84% in 2010. Furthermore, the percentage of learners with access to higher education increased from 37% in 2009 to 62% in 2010.
• The Academy of Excellence Programme: This programme stemmed from the Matric Enrichment Programme where learners who wanted more intensive assistance on a weekly basis were offered the opportunity to attend Saturday classes from 09:00 – 13:00 in maths, science, English and accounting throughout the year. Thirty-one Wittebome matrics committed to this tuition. Of these 31 learners, 30 passed matric, with 83,7% achieving high enough marks to access higher education.
• The Achiever’s Programme: The programme involves offering tuition to learners from more affluent backgrounds that need additional assistance in their various subjects and thus serves to generate income to support our social development projects. Our highly equipped tutors engage in one-on-one and small group classes in order to assist learners in their problem areas. Learners on this programme have also enjoyed immense improvements in their grades.
2010 proved to be a very busy and vastly successful year for Education Alive with hundreds of junior and senior learners having been given the opportunity for successful future learning. In 2011 Education Alive is expanding on their successful Reading Adventure Room Programme as well as offering the Academy of Excellence programme to Grade 11s in Wittebome High School.
Afrika Tikkun
Afrika Tikkun is a non-governmental non-profit organisation that works toward the transformation of South African communities by caring for vulnerable children and orphans in townships. Afrika Tikkun operates in four communities in Gauteng (Alexandra, Hillbrow, Diepsloot and Orange Farm) and two in the Western Cape (Delft and Mfuleni) by assisting each community to set up community boards and community management forums that take responsibility for the day-to-day activities and outreach programmes implemented in the community.
The trust has committed to upgrading Afrika Tikkun’s national ICT development and operational support infrastructure which will enable Afrika Tikkun to provide comprehensive data which will be used to accurately track the conditions of families in distress as well as use the data to inform management of these social conditions on a proactive basis. The various project sites include: Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Hillbrow, Alexandra, Mfuleni and Delft. Afrika Tikkun already has spent considerable sums on designing an internal software programme which enables the caregivers to collect empirical data from daily shack visits. This information needs to be captured at each township site and needs to be analysed at the Cape Town and Johannesburg head offices. This information serves as both a management tool and as a vital monitoring and evaluation system used to provide impact results of service delivery to donors, government departments and aid organisations.
This infrastructure will be utilised by the youth development programme inside the media centres/computer labs, and by administrative staff to record and collate data. This infrastructure is an inseparable element of Afrika Tikkun’s holistic circle of care model, which will ensure that Afrika Tikkun can achieve what they have set out to accomplish in this respect.
Thuthuka Bursary Fund
The Thuthuka Bursary Fund is a SAICA (South African Institute of Chartered Accountants) initiative and was established to provide full bursaries to between 250 and 300 black African and coloured students at selected SAICA-accredited universities. In 2010 Datatec committed to providing full bursaries to 10 students over a three-year period which is the time it will take for the students to complete their accounting degrees. This year sees the second year of the three-year commitment.
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Schools Enrichment Centre (“AIMSSEC”)
AIMSSEC is a voluntary association that was established in 2003 and which forms part of The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The AIMSSEC programme goal is the extension of educational opportunities to young people in South Africa and the introduction of new skills to the teaching of mathematics and the raising of standards. AIMSSEC and its partner the University of Fort Hare encourages teachers to be committed to lifelong learning. The AIMSSEC Aiming High Network extends across South Africa and encourages teachers to meet regularly in local groups. They offer a forum for the sharing of ideas and resources for mathematics teachers and learners in South African schools, connected by modern technology. They are striving together to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in historically disadvantaged areas. As of January 2011, the trust has committed to providing funding for 23 teachers in the Eastern Cape to attend a two-year professional development course offered by AIMSSEC and the Education Faculty of Fort Hare University. Through this programme the teachers will be equipped with subject knowledge and didactic skills to teach mathematics with confidence and enthusiasm, and to run workshops for other teachers.
Siyakhula Education Foundation
Datatec’s ongoing involvement with the Siyakhula Education Foundation (“SEF”) continues to bear much fruit and the past year has been particularly notable for a number of reasons. Firstly, the “low-cost high-quality” computer literacy training centre, the Siyakhula Computer School, continues to deliver a sustainable solution and much-needed service to surrounding impoverished communities. The original school serving Ivory Park and Ebony Park has since been replicated in Diepsloot as well. In the past year:
• Over 550 students from Ivory Park were trained on end-user computer literacy skills
• The Ivory Park school is now self-sustaining on the basis of the low-cost student fees
• Local community members continue to run the schools as their own social enterprise initiatives
• An additional low-cost internet lab and e-learning centre has been installed at Ivory Park
• The new centre in Diepsloot is expected to begin to achieve similar success in 2011.
Corporate social investment throughout the Group
Westcon Group
Westcon Group’s policy is to actively and enthusiastically support the welfare of its people, the environment and local communities wherever it has a presence.
Westcon acts responsibly to minimise the manner in which commercial activities may impact the environment. Additionally, Westcon encourages all operations across the globe to pursue initiatives with the goal of improving the quality of life in local communities.
Westcon Group is proud to highlight a few of its most impactful programmes:
• Throughout North America, Westcon has a significant number of employees participating in fundraising events for such leading charities as the Avon Foundation, Red Cross, United Way, American Cancer Society and Salvation Army.
• Every October in the US, all employees are asked to wear pink for one day. Each person donates money to enter the event, which is then sent to Susan G. Komen for the Cure – the largest breast cancer awareness organisation in the United States.
• In the UK, Westcon has teamed with CRN Magazine to support “Fight Night 2011”. Working in conjunction with Cityboxer, Development Manager Derek Wilson enrolled in a vigorous three-month training class. He then faced Sam Mager of Krome Technologies in a boxing match to raise money for the Iain Rennie Hospice.
• In New Zealand, Westcon is aggressively responding to the devastation caused by the Christchurch earthquake. To date, the region has raised more than $90 000 to help individuals affected by this natural disaster.
• Westcon’s Cirencester office in the UK supports Fatboys Charity, which aims to help children suffering from cancer and other life‑threatening illnesses. The charity is named after police officer Mike Lawless, who died of cancer at the age of 31. The office also hosts annual Children In Need Days.
• In Brazil, Westcon supports the Bola pra Frente Institute. The institute was created in 2000 by former professional soccer players to serve “at-risk” children between the ages of 6 to 17.
• Across the globe, Westcon’s offices promote carpooling and bicycle riding initiatives. Westcon recently launched a new programme in the UK, whereby employees are encouraged to commute via bicycle by offering highly discounted rental prices with free maintenance and replacement.
Logicalis
Logicalis encourages its operating companies in every territory to create initiatives that help improve the quality of life for their local communities. Here are just a few highlights.
During the 2010 holiday season, Logicalis US donated $35 000 to 35 charities in communities where its employees work and live; each charity was nominated and selected by local employees in one of 12 geographical regions who also made the check presentation. Their support made a big difference for community agencies ranging from food banks and homeless shelters to healthcare research and quality of family.
In addition, the Logicalis US “Give Back to the Community” programme allows each employee eight hours of work time each year to support charities of their choice; total volunteer hours in 2010 amounted to 2 349, and 6 771 since April 2008.
For the fifth year in succession, Logicalis UK made donations to the Berkshire Community Foundation which provides grants to local voluntary groups to support grassroots projects. These include young people with special needs, the disabled, the elderly and the homeless.
Logicalis UK also sponsors Pump Aid, a charity that provides access to clean drinking water and safe adequate sanitation to those in need in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Liberia.
Logicalis Southern Cone in South America participated for the second year in a recycling programme to support the Foundation of Garrahan Hospital in Argentina, focused on complex treatments for children. The programme consists of office collections of disposable paper and plastic cups, to be donated to the foundation for its recycling.
Logicalis also contributed to local community organisations which help children, such as A.D.A.N.D. and San Jose Providente; and made a donation to EGB Nº98 School, that needed technological equipment to develop a project for the improvement of writing and reading skills.
In Brazil, PromonLogicalis continues to support Junior Achievement, an organisation that teaches children about work readiness and entrepreneurship. A new programme was also established last year – PromonLogicalis Volunteer Programme, providing education, work readiness, and social movements to children in the communities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, supported through the following charities; Ação Comunitária, Asylo João Evangelista, CAMP Vila Isabel, CCA Santa Teresa de Jesus, Gotas de Flor com Amor and Lar Escola Recanto Cristão.
Another of these charities associated with the programme is Ser Cidadão, which provides vocational education for adolescents and young adults from poor communities. Formally set up four years ago, the association has a 20-year history grounded in the activities developed by the Educação de Trabalho (Education for Work) Programme.
In Australia, Logicalis made a donation of AUS$5 000 towards the Queensland Flood Relief after the natural disaster in Brisbane.
Local staff also participated in an activity to build a brand new bicycle for eight children in foster care. The children were presented with a helmet and bicycle, which was assembled by Logicalis staff (and checked over by a mechanic before the children were allowed to ride the bike!). For many of the children, this was the first bike that they ever owned.
Logicalis Singapore has supported the SingTel Touching Lives Fund by participating in its charity golf tournament for seven years. The Touching Lives Fund (TLF) is SingTel’s corporate philanthropy programme and it aims to provide disadvantaged children and young persons with special needs or who are at risk with learning opportunities and improving their quality of life. The beneficiaries supported by the TLF in 2010 were APSN Chao Yang School, APSN Tanglin School, AWWA Early Years Centre – EIPIC, MINDS Lee Kong Chian Gardens School, Students Care Service and the Singapore Cancer Society.
Analysys Mason
Analysys Mason is committed to good corporate citizenship and to supporting community and charity initiatives that are relevant to the business, employees, clients and stakeholders. Over the past year, Analysys Mason has supported local and international charities of all sizes. They have ranged from a local Manchester project, Francis House – a children’s hospice, to international charities such as Unicef whose efforts are recognised worldwide. At the staff consultative forum, staff are encouraged to nominate charities they feel would benefit from donations, whether this be via a set amount or, in most cases, the company will match any sponsorship raised by that individual. Analysys Mason’s employees continue to take an active part in local fundraising events such as the Chariots of Fire in Cambridge and to support charities by social fundraising, charity bike rides or marathon running.
Governance arrangements for CSR have provided a pivotal role in supporting and directing company efforts and aspirations to continually improve business sustainability.
Intact
Intact and its employees have a clear vision to be a positive force in their community. Intact supports and encourages individual employees to provide fundraising and other support to a wide range of charities and good causes, including in the last year Breast Cancer Care, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This year, a team of 10 Intact employees participated in the London to Brighton Bike Ride in aid of the British Heart Foundation. In addition, Intact adopts a specific recipient for fundraising based around our customer events. In the 2011 financial year, this was The White Lodge Centre, which provides a range of flexible and creative activities and opportunities for disabled children, young people and adults, for their families and for carers across Surrey and the surrounding area.
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