Partnerships with communities

Corporate social investment (CSI) is sometimes viewed as a cost to the business, in much the same way as compliance with BEE charters and regulation, but it doesn`t have to be that way. Local components distributor, Axiz, has come up with some innovative ways to fulfil its responsibilities.

Some companies identify a single cause and invest their entire CSI budget into one initiative while others elect to spread the investment across multiple projects. Axiz has chosen the latter route.

According to CEO, Anthony Fitzhenry, there are two ways to look at CSI: As compliance with the Department of Trade and Industry`s BEE scorecard, or as an investment in the future of the country. He suggests that many companies view it as an investment in people and community projects tied to some form of political or marketing benefit. "We look at it differently," he says.

Ledibogo

The key is sustainability over a long period of time.

Anthony Fitzhenry, CEO, Axiz

The Axiz programme begins with a key component of its business. Under a programme called Ledibogo, the company has reinvented its reseller channel. "Distributors in the past focused on flogging products to resellers and [weren`t] really interested in the way those resellers run their businesses. With Ledibogo we`re focusing on building sustainability, going out, looking at our resellers and questioning their business plans, questioning their strategy, working with them to build sustainable business," explains Fitzhenry.

Inqolobane

In 1995, after some seven years of being in existence, Axiz changed its business to share ownership between management and employees, becoming what Fitzhenry calls a "community company", meaning "every person that works in the company is both an employee and an owner".

Some time later, and as a natural extension of this internal process, the company began what he describes as Axiz`s gift to urban SA, the Inqolobane programme. Essentially an employee ownership association, Axiz uses the programme to pass on lessons it has learnt over the years in a bid to assist other organisations transform in similar fashion.

"At the moment we`re working with 50 companies who are converting and 10 of which have successfully changed. So we`re making a difference to the lives of about 2 000 employees," he claims.

Qhubeka

"Qhubeka is our gift to rural SA," notes Fitzhenry. The company is using its broad network of warehouses and transportation to the benefit of rural communities. "We`ve made a link with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy - the top transport advocacy group in the world," he adds.

"It has designed three bicycles: one for children of nine to 12 years old, another for those in the 12- to 18-year age group and a third for adults. Trek and Giant built these bicycles for us [locally] and we leverage our logistic capacity to [deliver] them to the beneficiaries at the lowest possible cost," says Fitzhenry.

Importantly though, this is not charity. Motivated by the vast distances that some of SA`s 16 million school children walk to school each day, the project plans to deliver bicycles to these communities at an affordable price. "This is really a bicycle financing programme. What we do is go out and find ways in which we can help rural communities build sustainable economies and, initially, pay for the bicycles," he explains.

As an example he cites Axiz`s joint initiative with the Winelands Conservation Trust whereby children grow indigenous trees in exchange for a Qhubeka bicycle. Children are taught how to find the correct seeds, how to cultivate them for the best possible results and then the children take the saplings to a central spot for sale.

The company has set ambitious targets for the distribution of these bicycles: one million in 10 years. However, Fitzhenry says the targets cannot be achieved by Axiz alone, the initiative needs support and assistance, both from government and other parts of the private sector.

The HP i-Community, based in the Mogalakwena municipality in the Limpopo Province, is entering a new phase. As HP disengages, President Thabo Mbeki praises a deep rural village for leading the way in development.

In Dipichi, thousands gather. Life is different. It`s still dusty and hot and at least half an hour from the nearest tar road, but the rural village that, until recently, had virtually no modern amenities, is abuzz with excitement.

For today, Thabo Mbeki is coming. Today, Dipichi has electricity and connectivity.

All included

Dipichi forms one of several rural spokes of the 'i-Community` multi-purpose centre established three years ago by HP near Mokopane, formerly Potgietersrus. The "i" in the name refers to "inclusion", and is related to the e-inclusion project launched by HP`s former CEO, Carly Fiorina, in countries such as SA, India and Senegal.

Dipichi can teach SA what we mean by development.

Thabo Mbeki, president, SA

According to research commissioned by the i-Community team, fewer than half the residents in this deep rural area, which consists of over a 100 villages, have any income at all. Dipichi was selected as one satellite site for the i-Community project, exactly because it is so remote, and was one of the least-developed villages in the region.

Sello Moloto, the premier of Limpopo, says the idea was to integrate IT in development, and use this in rural areas to attract other services to the community, deliver e-government services and develop life skills.

Nothing is free

"The lesson we`ve learned," beams Moloto, "is that if all stakeholders, private companies, municipalities and local government work together, we can make this work."

Of course, it doesn`t work free of charge. HP invested over R25 million into the project, according to CEO Thoko Mokgosi, and the provincial government invested R17 million, not counting time and effort. The trick all along has been to make these projects self-funding. Although HP has transferred responsibility for the project to the Mogalakwena municipality, having come to the end of its original three-year commitment, the company has agreed to remain engaged with the project to develop a viable business model.

Reaching rural Africa

Three years ago, HP launched the central hub of the i-Community project near Mokopane. Although Bernard Meric, a senior VP of HP now describes it as being more of an investment in corporate social responsibility, Fiorina`s original vision was to build a centre, where technology and communication would be used, to create practical solutions to the real needs of developing countries.

The real needs include schooling and computer literacy, but also involve such basics as food security, alternative power generation, recording cultural history and preserving knowledge of indigenous medicinal plants. The project`s third anniversary and success to date was celebrated during the president`s annual review visit.

An extensive herb and vegetable garden, several small manufacturing projects, a community school with a near-complete local curriculum, and a solar heating installation stand are testament to the replicability of the original concept.

"It`s finally in its replication phase," says Younis Hassan, who was born in this region, ended up working for HP and is now back and in charge of the i-School project which, he explains, works as follows:

The computers run Kubuntu, the KDE offshoot of Mark Shuttleworth`s Ubuntu project. On top of this is an interface called Computers4Kids, and software that includes GCompris, Edupac, and KDE`s suite of edutainment applications. It uses Mambo - another free software package - to host the e-learning portal, and runs against a caching server that can handle the inevitable intermittent connectivity a remote region such as Dipichi suffers.

Hassan says the i-School has attracted not only attention from the Department of Education, which considers it valuable input and feedback into its own programmes, but also forms part of Nepad`s plan for schools across Africa.

Later, when Mbeki addresses the crowd and promises he`ll get the cellphone operators to provide coverage in Dipichi, his popularity among the crowd is evident. "Dipichi is making history," he says. "Dipichi can teach the whole of SA what we mean by development."

Well aware of the dangers of freebie projects where companies dish out money and leave feeling warm and fuzzy, NamITech has dotted every I and crossed every T it can think of at the Boikanyo Primary School. If there are any loose ends it might have overlooked, the school and parents have been quick to step in to tie them up.

"From the beginning, when we saw how well run and organised the school was, we knew this was going to be a sustainable project," says Glenda Babaya, NamITech`s head of marketing and product specialist, who handles the company`s CSI portfolio.

Most of the 900 learners at Boikanyo Primary, located in Ga-Rankuwa outside Pretoria, come from severely disadvantaged homes. Even so, their parents managed to scrape together almost R70 000 to contribute towards the R140 000 cost of building the school`s new computer centre, called the NamITech Centre of Excellence. Each parent came up with R130 per learner and raised more money by collecting cans for recycling.

Rolling up of sleeves

Not content with that, parents and educators rolled up their sleeves and physically helped build the centre, which houses 50 refurbished computers, networking hard drives and accessories such as DVD ROMs, and PC domes to protect the equipment.

To deter would-be thieves and vandals, every window and door has been fitted with saw-proof burglar proofing, and there`s even talk of the school hiring a full-time security guard, says Babaya. "They`re making really sure the building is secure."

The wholehearted support of the community has been a critical differentiator for the project, which NamITech kick started in September through a R74 000 donation from the proceeds of its annual golf day and has since committed another R365 000.

We want to see evidence that the children are learning and growing through our investment.

Glenda Babaya, head of marketing, NamITech

"But this hasn`t been a case of saying, 'Here`s some money, now run with it`," says Babaya. "We are committed to staying involved with the school for the next five years and are using our own skills and resources to make sure it works. Our own IT guys have been involved with the installation of equipment and go out regularly to the centre. We`ve also got our own networking supplier on board to help with the networking side and have appointed one person at NamITech to take responsibility for the project and liaise with the school."

Importance of teacher training

Teacher training - the lack of which has tripped up many a similar project - has been addressed. One teacher, who already had a working knowledge of computers, has been trained on Windows troubleshooting and support, and a second staff member is due to undergo training soon.

As the new centre was launched only two months ago, it`s still early days to predict how effective it has been in developing learners` computer literacy skills.

"The real test will come into three to six months when we review progress made," Babaya says. "We intend going back every three or four months and we want to see evidence that the children are learning and growing through our investment."