ABB believes in supporting projects that are sustainable and will support communities over the long term. To ABB, good corporate citizenship means that we cannot give up or walk away from our community partners when they still need us. But we may on occasion have to rethink project design due to the continual change occurring around us.
The long-term objective is to achieve independence for our projects by establishing entrepreneurs, managers, and workers where before there was unemployment and poverty.
ABB’s efforts in this regard are targeted at improving select aspects of the quality of life of the underprivileged people, focusing in a first phase on the communities from where we draw labour. The projects that we support must always aim at being self-sustainable after a certain start up period. 'Help the people to help themselves' is the overall motto of ABB’s Corporate Social Investment (CSI) policy.
Our CSI policy is based on two main branches, Training/Education for Employment, starting from Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) through to job skills training and then SMME support and aftercare, and a second branch Community Support, covering youth activities, women’s development, basic health care, trauma counselling and recuperation, as well as other support organisations.
For all our projects we try to find external partners, other industrial companies, governmental organisations and always the people and their communities that can best secure the objectives of the project. By joining forces we are able to be much more effective and support a bigger variety of projects.
A CSI forum, made up of employees who take an interest in the upliftment of communities, determines where support and investment is to be given. The forum meets monthly to determine future support and to evaluate the progress and success of earlier ventures.
ABB also employs a full-time CSI project co-ordinator, who is involved on a daily basis with the ongoing projects, to facilitate new ideas and foster growth.
Projects
Botshabelo
ABB runs an electrical enclosure factory in Botshabelo where 170 workers from the area are employed. Over the years, the company has become extensively involved in Botshabelo and now plays an active role in the upliftment of this community. Apart from the Lungisa training programmes that ABB has conducted here, the company has formed a solid partnership with the Association for Persons with Disabilities and the Deaf (APD) in the area. This non-government organisation offers a service to all people with disabilities thoughout the Free State i.e. social welfare, workshops for skills development, but the main focus is the upliftment of all people with disabilities in all walks of life.
For more than six years, the company has been involved with the Tswelopele workshop, a joint project between ABB and APD which employs about 60 people. The purpose of the workshop is to assist disabled people to create a small business unit that will generate a monthly income for its members. The disabled entrepreneurs have been contracted by ABB to assemble componenets, which are required in various ABB activities.
More recently, ABB has renovated APD’s offices in Botshabelo and made it accessible for wheelchair users. This year, the company has donated over R35 000 towards the start up of new projects and is currently looking at reconstructing three Active Learning Centres for children with disabilities which are currently run in tin shacks. The company has committed itself to developing three brick and mortar constructions totalling R250 000 for this purpose.
Conquest For Life: Westbury
ABB supports the positive upliftment work being done in the crime and drug-ridden area of Westbury. Conquest for life trains your leaders to work with school children and your people to counteract crime, especially drugs. The aim of the organisation is to improve, promote and better the quality of life for all people with a focus on youth enrichment projects and income generating activities. The organisation’s projects involve educating, motivating and challenging young people and the community to address issues of violence, crime, gangsters, drug trafficking and abuse, unemployment and problems facing family. It also provides students, teachers and parents with the opportunity to develop skills, build supportive relationships and to identify resources all within a safe environment. ABB continues to support this project in various ways, including a cash contribution of R20 000 per year.
Lungisa: Training for repair and maintenance of electrical appliances
One of ABB’s projects that has been very successful is Lungisa, which means 'fix it' in Nguni languages. This project has been running since 1997 and assists in the empowerment of unemployed and disabled people by allowing them to open their own repair businesses for household electrical appliances. The eight-week course has a success rate of more than 60 percent and is the flagship of all ABB CSI initiatives. ABB is networking with other companies that are active in upliftment and development drives. Some of those companies and political bodies are: Nu World Industries, Eskom, Defy, Alpha (Pty) Ltd, Power Technologies, and Swiss Economic Affairs. There is a sophisticated aftercare programme to assist the newly trained graduates
In addition, training is now provided for community development, hydroponics and welding have been added (approximately 20 programmes per year nationally).
Adult Basic Education and Training, ABET
Duduza, Literacy Programme
Some 13 unemployed teachers, living in Duduza, started a literacy training for the community. With the help of ABB this programme today gives 270 pupils the opportunity to learn to read and write.
ABET, Adult Basic Education and Training
ABB supports the national drive for better education and recognises that the fundamental skills in reading and writing forms the foundation for further development and recognition of priority learning. Embarking on the drive to uplift our total workforce, ABB has progressed a long way in undertaking the literacy process, consisting of functional literacy, numeracy, life skills, business skills, and computer skills, in all of its operations in South African for our employees.
Digital Partnership
ABB supports a program aimed at making IT, communications equipment and technology available for education and social development programs in South Africa. The Digital Partnership, as it is called, is an initiative launched by the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) with the support of the World Bank, South African public authorities and community partners, and a network of international companies in Europe and the United States. If the project is a success, it will be expanded to other developing countries. ABB is the first global company to contribute to the pilot phase. Through this programme, ABB is providing more than 20 000 pre-used PCs due for replacement, yet still in excellent condition, to children in disadvantaged communities who need computers and access to the Internet for learning and development in the country.
The PCs were collected from ABB's worldwide organization.
ABB in South Africa has been among the first companies to introduce Internet cafes to shopfloor employees at its factories, assisting them to experience the digital world. Employees' children are also encouraged to make use of the facilities.