CARING FOR KIDS: A MINER’S CONTRIBUTION TO A NOBLE CAUSE
ESG programmes can make significant impact when they focus on bedrock community issues. JVChantete's association with the Sara Rose Children Foundation is one such success story.
A defining indicator of a caring society is how it responds to the needs of its most vulnerable people.
The Copperbelt in Zambia is so named because it is an area with some of the richest copper deposits in the world. Yet the overall regional economy, like the local economies of cities such as Chililabombwe, Chilonga and Ndola, is structurally flawed and underperforming. Global mining companies and major local players operate here. But the local people do not see the full benefits.
Kitwe, with a population of 760,000, is Zambia's second-largest city and the industrial, commercial and geographical centre of the Copperbelt. It has social and welfare challenges, like almost all major cities around the world. (If you are reading this in Cape Town or Los Angeles you will relate to the issue of the homeless; street soliciting in Johannesburg is a pervasive free-for-all, but even residents of Berne and Brussels experience this societal stress, albeit associated with organised street begging.) Corporates and better-off citizens often choose to look the other way.
Ten years ago, Zambian mining operation JVChantete took a different view. Under the leadership of Lafras Luitingh, and with his personal involvement, the company started supporting the Sara Rose Children Foundation.
Founded in 2003, the Foundation aims to rebuild the lives of children who have suffered the loss of parents, abuse or abandonment, those who are malnourished or severely ill and are not receiving treatment, and to help in other related circumstances. Over the years the outreach has widened, and today there are three operations in Kitwe: the orphanage and refuge, the St. Michael feeding scheme, and a special boy's home.
This expansion and unwavering commitment has been enabled by JVChantete funding the upgrade of premises including electricity and sanitation installations, the supply of clean running water, and ongoing repairs and maintenance. "Transforming the physical spaces has created an environment which allows our children to feel a sense of psychological safety," says the Foundation's patron, the Rev. Edward Mwansa. The mining company also covers all monthly running costs. "But," reflects Mwansa, "perhaps the most important contribution is the volunteer work done by the Luitingh family. The kids see that ordinary citizens care. The interaction opens up a horizon of hope."
Proof that caring changes lives
Social development projects, budgeted loosely and bundled within vague environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies, often fail to make an impact. In contrast, statistics about the real-world work of the Sara Rose Children Foundation make for sombre but also heart-warming reading, and prove that targeted, participative support by corporations can make a huge difference. For instance, in the years since JVChantete's involvement 703 orphans have been sheltered, including a yearly average of 30 babies; 58 children have been succoured to health after suffering severe malnutrition; ten children started Grade-1 and then completed their schooling while at the Foundation - a 10-year journey of overcoming hardship and building a better life. Challenged children have been sent to specials schools for training, and they have become part of the solution at the orphanage.
But perhaps the smallest number conveys the depth of caring: 4. This is the number of orphans currently at the Foundation’s home with critical health challenges. Two are disabled and two are HIV-positive. They need, and receive, intensive and unstinting support.
The ills of poverty run deep
There is still much to do. Broadly, according to the United Nations Development Programme's latest available poverty index , for the nation as a whole, 47.9 percent of the population is multidimensionally poor. This has implications across the spectrum of societal hardships, including impacts upon children of all ages.
One related example is the critical need for more tertiary education and skills development opportunities. Seventeen of the Foundation's children have progressed to college or undergone post-school vocational training. But Kitwe, indeed the entire Copperbelt, needs the business community to think laterally about creating jobs and then to act by developing a pipeline - from schooling, to training, to meaningful employment - to build and diversify the regional economy.
Like many social upliftment initiatives, this will, of course, take time. It's also true that children are the future. But communities need to give children a foundation in the present. Companies, as powerful and influential entities in society, should contribute to building these foundations.
To the Sara Rose Children Foundation, thank you for making lives whole. And to all the children of Kitwe: Ndemilombelako ukutila mukwate amaka.
For more information, or if you are considering making a contribution, visit sararosechildrenfoundation.com or call +26 097 7884019.