Volunteers for Villages
Employee volunteers share skills to build capacity among young people in Manenberg and Khayelitsha, Cape Town, as part of Transnet’s Youth Empowerment Programme, aimed at improving the chances of vulnerable youth from high risk communities.
The six-month project, carried out at the Tembaletu School for the Disabled and at Manenberg Secondary School, focuses on ways to combat bullying; on self-esteem, appearance, etiquette, health, wellness and sport; on ways to avoid substance abuse and to handle friends who abuse drugs; on recycling and waste management.
Other employees engage with community and external stakeholders in community development programmes in Kimberley, De Aar, Rossmead, Saldanha Bay, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Waterval Boven and Durban South.
In Motherwell in the Eastern Cape, volunteers transfer business skills to 15 civil society organisations working to address the social needs of the elderly and the disabled. The Civil Society Development Initiative is a 24-week training programme. Sport is not left out. Transnet contributed R14 million to build the Saldanha Sport Stadium, an amount matched by the municipality.
The Transnet Foundation Employee Volunteer Programme has evolved. In the early days, volunteers would adopt a community for a three-year period – initially Diepsloot in Gauteng , Inanda inKwaZulu-Natal and Motherwell – and work with residents on projects they deemed important, whether helping to establish food gardens, building better facilities at local schools or building the capacity of local NGOs.
These days, the largesse – financial and physical – is spread widely, with Transnet employees enthusiastic about being involved in programmes of their choice.
The Transnet Awards showcased the growing enthusiasm for volunteering among employees.