Seacom celebrates its Foundation Day by giving back to the commu
Seacom celebrates its Foundation Day by giving back to the commu
SEACOM celebrates the fourth anniversary of its commercial launch on July 2013, by reaching out to communities across Africa with a range of social upliftment activities. This continues the pan-African telecom enabler’s tradition of celebrating its Foundation Day each year by assisting and supporting local communities in the countries where it is active.
Says Mark Simpson, CEO of SEACOM: “As a catalyst for the development and growth of the ICT infrastructure and industry on the African continent, there’s nothing we like more than giving something back to each country where we do business. Once again, our Foundation Day is an ideal platform to take part in a range of grassroots community development activities and further our corporate social investment programme. What makes the initiatives we have planned for each country so exciting is that they allow each SEACOM employee to directly engage in social upliftment. This is a sustainable approach that is empowering for everyone involved – it’s about genuine partnership with the community and not just donating money.”
This year, SEACOM Mozambique, will be providing a computer lab to the Orfanato de Boane orphanage on Foundation Day. Staff will be at the school to oversee and support the launch of the lab.
SEACOM Mauritius will be supporting the Mauritius SoS Children’s Village by providing educational material, food, and hosting a fun day for the children under its care. The highlight of the day will be the handover of plants to the 52 children from SoS Children’s Village. SEACOM Mauritius will also adopt 5 trees in Valley De Ferney for 20 years.
Following its donation in 2012 of a computer lab to the learners at Buguruni School of the Deaf, Dar es Salaam, SEACOM Tanzania is working with the School to develop a software solution for the hearing impaired. This initiative will be introduced at the School on this year’s Foundation Day. The learners at the Buguruni School will be entertained with jumping castles, clowns, games, and lunch as part of the event.
SEACOM Kenya will be supporting two orphanages. The Nairobi Office will be visiting S.C.R.E.A.M Africa Orphanage, Nairobi while Mombasa Office will be visiting Linkoni Aids Orphanage, Mombasa. The SEACOM Nairobi and Mombasa staff will provide educational material, online tutorials and dry food to each orphanage.
In South Africa, SEACOM will be building on the success of last year’s SEACOM Solution Quest with Tembisa Secondary High School. This social collaboration and mentorship programme saw work with selected Tembisa High School learners to help them create their own interventions to address socio-economic issues affecting their lives.
SEACOM South Africa will help these learners host a career day at Tembisa on Foundation Day. Together with Edubridge, SEACOM will explain the career identification and exploration process, with specific emphasis on learner career assessments. The career day will showcase career options to the learners, with representatives from a Convergence Partners and other top South African companies on hand to explain the jobs and career paths they have on offer to the learners.
It will also create awareness for the Department of Education’s new career development programme. As part of this programme, two trained career guidance practitioners will be placed at Tembisa High School to give career assessments and advice, initially to Grade 9 learners.
The Beehive Youth Life Skills Mxit Portal, an initiative conceived by Tembisa High School learners as part of the SEACOM Solution Quest, will be launched in beta form on Foundation Day 2013. This portal aims to bring valuable life skills support and mentoring to disadvantaged youths around South Africa over the next few months.