Serving the community

John Thompson, of US IT company Computer Services Corporation (CSC), and his wife Carol Thompson, started a non-profit organisation in Masiphumelele, a squatter camp south of Cape Town, in 1999. Originally called "Site 5", the area is a remnant of the forced removals era, which saw the occupants receive a tiny plot with a toilet on it.

Thompson`s attention was brought to the area when he saw a photograph in a newspaper of women from the area, needing a cement mixer to help replace their squatter shacks with cement-block houses. Working with the local Women`s Organisation, the Thompsons built a rudimentary block-making facility, and a programme to educate the local women on the economics of making them.

The initial phases of the project were difficult and disappointing, and by the middle of 2000, the block-making area was being used as a place to dump garbage - another monument to "well intentioned whitey intervention" - in the words of the organisation`s annual report.

The Thompsons persisted, however, and today, the Masiphumelele Corporation has embarked on projects in home construction and education, and is well on the way to creating a sustainable community development programme for the 10 000 residents of the area.

One might reasonably ask what`s in it for the Thompsons, and for CSC. Thompson, speaking from his home in Cape Town, candidly admits that it`s not much.

"But let me give you a list of what it might be," he adds. "The top of it is feel-good, and that`s not to be discounted. The second thing, close behind it, is looking for the new human resource. There are very few mechanisms and processes to do that."

Thompson likens the legacy of Bantu Education to the cycle of child abuse. "The people who are teaching today are relics of that Act," he says. "We have all the horrors of the 1980s being perpetuated, and there`s little chance of coming out of that spiral. What this country needs - and I admit I`m speaking as an outsider - is finding the exceptional people."

For $50k a year we`re already making an enormous difference.

The theory goes like this: you start a project, helped out with a donation of a few computers, for example. This project attracts volunteers. Says Thompson: "It`s well documented in the annals of sociology that the people who volunteer are the people who make the best employees and contribute the most to social equity. If you skim the top off the volunteers, you have a way of finding the top people."

His suggestion for companies is to make this process a part of management training for promising young people from disadvantaged communities.

"Start an operating foundation, salt it with half a million rand, get a couple of bright young people and tell them to find more of the same and do something good in the community while they`re at it - all as part of management training. We don`t call it community service, although it is, but we call it resource identification. The volunteer way is how you find the right people to emerge."

3Com`s Chris van Niekerk emphasises the need to find the right partners for successful investment in community projects. Like most people interviewed for this article, he doesn`t see a direct return on investment from the company`s involvement in the Communal Information Technology Centre (CITC) in Welkom, but considers the commitment of the project`s leaders and the long-term sustainability key to the development of skills to replace those leaving the country.

Creating mindshare; bridging the digital divide; accepting our moral obligation.

CITC`s mission, according to project director Kwamen Kubweza, is "community advancement through access to high quality IT skills development and the use of IT as a key competence to accelerate development".

He says the CITC model is a delivery mechanism consisting of physical facilities equipped to provide general and specialist IT skills training, applications development with special focus on Africa`s needs, and comprehensive IT and Internet services.

"In the first instance, it is addressing the issues of poverty alleviation through providing income opportunities for the otherwise unemployed, and enhancing productive capacity through providing IT-related skills training to emerging and expanding businesses," he says.

The governing purpose is to contribute to the development of an IT-skilled workforce either as successful job-seekers or job-creators.

In addition to donating the networking equipment for the 181-terminal CITC, 3Com launched its NetPrep training course at CITC in January.

To date, CITC has provided subsidised skills training for 400 unemployed people, 60% of whom were women, and even if there`s no ROI measurable in rands and cents, the results are impossible to dismiss. About 70% of graduates have found employment, eight have contributed to job creation by starting their own businesses, and the centre now generates income covering 35% of its running costs.

Although some people warn not to confuse sport sponsorship with community projects, Van Niekerk points out that projects like 3Com`s All Africa Games sponsorship and support of the 2006 Soccer Bid, initially aimed at creating broader brand awareness, have directly contributed to projects like CITC. "R1 million worth of equipment was moved from the All Africa Games to this project," he says.

Although approaches differ, the common focus on people and education seems to be a dominant feature of the involvement of IT companies in community projects.

According to Microsoft`s Gina Wessie, manager of the company`s community investment programme, organisations like Intel, Kodak, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Mustek all buy into education as a valuable investment.

"We at Microsoft strongly believe that the single most important use of IT is to improve education," the company`s chairman, Bill Gates, is quoted as saying.

Much social responsibility is merely branding or advertising. We need to qualify what `community investment` really is.

The Digital Villages project, one of several projects in which Microsoft is involved alongside several partners, focuses on skills development and training, and has a direct effect on job creation and employment, according to the Northern Cape Province premier, Manne Dipico.

Notwithstanding the company`s involvement in these projects, Wessie believes that it faces significant challenges. "One of the challenges is bringing together local government and communities. People don`t have faith in their local governments, but there is nothing we can do without local government involvement. Better coordination at local government level would greatly improve delivery. Another challenge is the need to promote the need for self-involvement of communities in projects - the need to take ownership."

RUMEP is an investment in people - giving young people the basic foundation to further education in mathematics and sciences.

Ericsson`s Michelle Kneisel, project coordinator for the Rhodes University Mathematics Education Programme (RUMEP) in the Eastern Cape, reports a high level of commitment from the local teachers whom the project serves.

The company decided to work on the proposed project for linking clusters of teachers that are often as much as four hours removed. The company`s Swedish parent hosts an annual global competition for developing community projects, and RUMEP was chosen as one of five finalists that have their proposals built by Ericsson.

"It`s helping people to help themselves. The competition format ensures that we help self-starters. It`s not a handout," says Kneisel.

"The people on the ground were a little scared of computers, but their commitment to their pupils made them willing to learn, so they`re driving the project. I was very impressed with the standard of teaching among the teachers involved in the project."

Like other companies involved in such projects, direct ROI is considered less important than that the money is spent well, and the long-term value is seen as an investment in people - skilling people to become fruitful for industry and, perhaps, Ericsson itself.

Organisations that offer education and other charitable development work have their own set of challenges to deal with. Christo Read is director of development at St George`s Home, which, among other projects, provides residence and schooling for disadvantaged youth.

Without paying for salaries, and printer paper, the projects we raise funds for can`t happen.

According to Read, a general trend is that companies are willing to donate products, or are willing to provide project-based funding, but are not prepared to cover the mundane running costs of these projects. "Without paying for salaries, and printer paper, the projects we raise funds for can`t happen," he says.

He is sceptical about the concern companies and aid agencies express about how funds are used. "Yes, people like Alan Boesak have done the industry a lot of harm. But any potential donor has the right - and obligation - to inspect an NGO`s financial reports before donating. There are a lot of organisations doing a lot of good work, and most of the more established NGOs have strict financial controls in place."

He points out that the suspicion particularly disadvantages small community-based projects. "They often do great work, but they don`t have the management skill and financial practices in place," he says. "But this is another area where companies can get involved: sponsoring management training for some of the people involved in such projects."

Another notable concern among NGOs is that international aid is fast drying up. Now that the high-profile transition to democracy is seen as a fait accompli, and following the high-profile Boesak incident, development aid organisations are wary of investing in specific projects, preferring to provide budget support to government instead, according to PricewaterhouseCooper`s Doug Franke.

This makes it even more important for local businesses - of all sizes - to get involved in community projects and to provide the basis for creating an employable and productive workforce to support their futures in SA. And, as Bill Gates rightly pointed out, IT companies are among the best placed to make a real difference to education and job creation.