Internet Solutions is a leading converged communications service provider. As a leader in our field, we understand the importance of not just following the dictates of our conscience in addressing inequalities in our country, but demonstrating visible accountability to our peers. As a result, our BEE efforts include a substantial Corporate Social Investment (CSI) component.
Internet Solutions have been involved in numerous initiatives over the years, in an attempt to enhance the socio-economic development of our country and to improve life skills. Our primary focus, in line with the service offerings of our company, is to dedicate support to organisations that focus on providing support to previously disadvantaged individuals in the area of IT training. In education we focus on providing IT training, which would include schools, community centres and related projects to previously disadvantaged individuals. In addition we do consider worthy causes such as HIV/AIDs as this does have a direct impact on the socio-economic growth of our country.
IS provides support in the communities it operates in by donating services and solutions, mainly in the form of connectivity and hosting.
Some of the key CSI initiatives IS has been involved in include:
Staff Initiatives:
MaAfrika Tikkun:
MaAfrika 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. MaAfrika Tikkun registered as a Black Economic Empowerment company in 2006 and have a multiracial and multicultural team. They foster empowerment by providing holistic services focused on caring for children ranging from one year to 19 years of age, as well as their guardians.
What we did:
Internet Solutions sponsored the following solutions to MaAfrika Tikkun:
- 10 x Business ADSL (physical lines & bandwidth)
- Hosted Exchange
- Virtual Server
- Attix5 Backup
- Firewall
Epilepsy Centre in Parys:
Epilepsy SA is an organisation that cares for persons with disabilities. The centre in Parys has 81 residents and also assists 335 people through home based care.
The residents have a home and are taught skills such as candle making and growing vegetables, to give them a sense of self worth.
Over the past 12 years, the Epilepsy SA facility has had minimal upkeep. Over time this has resulted in wear and tear that has increased as the centre has focused on providing essential services.
What we did:
- We scrubbed and painted the home of the residents;
- We laboured over the shop to make it an attractive environment. This shop consists of a bakery & coffee shop, sells vegetables which were planted & harvested by the residents, sells local art and gifts and hot bread daily. This has been named as the “Dome Business Hub”.
- We helped to put up x16 vegetable tunnels which would provide sustainable food and work for the residents of Epilepsy SA.
Diepsloot Cerebral Palsy project:
In July 2010, IS had 650 staff that volunteered to upgrade a home in Diepsloot. The Bona Lesedi centre based in Diepsloot takes care of Cerebral Palsy children and persons with disabilities. Bona Lesedi means “See the Light”.
The Centre has had minimal upkeep during the 10 years they have been running, as they rely mostly on the goodwill of others, in conjunction with a minimal government contribution. As such, a decision was taken to enhance the lives of the people who are so willing to sacrifice for the wellbeing of others by providing them with an upgrade and refurbishment to their centre in order to create a more comfortable environment for people to live in.
Activities ranged from painting interior and exterior walls, planting grass, developing a new soccer field for the centre, tiling of floors, replacing carpets and the entire refurbishment of key areas within the centre, these being the kitchen, offices and classrooms.
Tshwarangano Primary:
In 2007 IS adopted Thokoza’s Tshwarangano Primary School after deciding to have a more focused CSI policy that would make a substantial and sustainable difference. The policy focuses mainly on education and HIV, with specific attention being paid to Primary School children. Since the adoption of the school, Internet Solutions and Dimension Data have made significant improvements to the school, including example classroom revamps, the building of new classrooms and a library as well as the sponsoring of teachers and winter uniforms. This year Internet Solutions and Dimension Data have joined forces to build a bakery in order to address the very serious issue of food shortage amongst the students.
Most students are from the neighbouring informal settlements, many of whom are AIDS orphans and are taken in by whoever will have them. These factors, coupled with the high rate of unemployment in the area, all merge to create a situation where children have little access to food. There is currently a feeding scheme in place which is funded by the school however it is only able to support 700 of the 1400 students which means teachers are forced to choose only the worst cases to feed. For most of these children this is the only meal they receive all day.
The bakery, which is currently being built, aims to provide a long term, self sustaining solution to this crisis. Assisted by a company called Siyabonga Africa, who sell bread ovens to corporate funders, we hope to develop this bakery first and foremost as a solution to the feeding scheme so that all students may benefit from it. Secondly, we would like to assist the bakery to the point where it becomes a profitable business that sells bread and confectionary into the community. The money generated from these sales will then be put back into the feeding scheme so that the school is able to supply balanced nutritional meals by adding vegetables or meat so as to avoid malnutrition. At the same time the building and running of the bakery will provide employment for community members further relieving the unemployment in the area.
CIDA (Community Individual Development Association) is a university for disadvantaged students with potential (i.e. hard workers who want to lead and become leaders) who are selected from schools across South Africa to participate in what can be described as kibbutz style learning institution. Everyone helps to run and maintain the campus. This on going project presents IS and its staff with an incredible opportunity to give back to our community, and to ensure that others benefit from the privileges that we have all been given.
IS’ role in CIDA includes the following:
- Providing infrastructure to enable CIDA to achieve their objectives in education and training.
- Assisting with the day to day administration of the university IT infrastructure and we are helping with student services such as internet access and e-mail.
- A number of IS staff members voluntarily lecture to the CIDA students on the IT 2 Internet Literacy course. They have given their time, expertise and energy to the design of an IT curriculum and the development of course material and lecturing.
Infinite Family is an American organisation of concerned families who wish to improve the lives of African children who may have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS or other causes.
They do this through technology which enables families to communicate directly through video conferencing, email, secure internet and interactive tools. IS decided to assist in this worthy initiative by providing the infrastructure.
Initially, two organisations - Nkosi’s Haven (Johannesburg) and Refilwe (Lanseria) – have been connected and positive changes to the lives of these children are already being seen.
The fit between IS and Infinite Family is an excellent example of how technology can be used to positively improve the lives of those who most need help as well as open up a future that simply did not previously exist.
We have witnessed real results from this project. Infinite Family has considerable experience in using the internet and other tools to assist these children in a safe and non-pressured environment. Direct intervention is made possible regardless of geographic location. It gives us great pleasure to see such a positive outcome through the use of technology.
Health
Pixels for Charity:
For our HIV/AIDS initiative we have decided to partner with the Topsy Foundation as they too focus primarily on children. They work in rural communities providing people with the tools for change and assisting young people whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS to become productive members of society.
The Topsy Foundation have three programmes which work together to prevent and alleviate the consequences of HIV/AIDS.
These programmes are:
- Home-based Care and Community Outreach
- In-house care
- Training and poverty alleviation
Based on all of the above we decided to create a ‘Pixels for Charity’ website and donate all the funds raised during 2007 to the Topsy Foundation to enable them to continue to do the good work they are already doing.
The website is owned, sponsored and managed by Internet Solutions, the idea is to sell 1 million pixels for R1 each and in so doing raise 1 million rand for the Topsy Foundation. Companies who buy pixels are then able to place an image on the site which will click through to their own company website. So far we have sold 59 000 pixels and we continue to promote the initiative in the press and at all our company events.