Declaring 2010 as a year of goodwill, Vharanani Consulting has opened up a whole new world for disadvantaged rural learners at Tshishonga Primary School, in Thohoyadou, in Limpopo. The black-owned IT company recently donated computers, printers and R10 000 cash to the school.
Despite the tough economic conditions, Vharanani Consulting continues to contribute to needy causes through its corporate social investment programme. The organisation has made substantial investments in various educational initiatives as part of its drive to provide children with proper education and infrastructure.
“These children have now joined the digital world and were all smiles when they were shown how it works. The school is dilapidated, with minimal furniture, toilets and classrooms. I attended this school many years ago and there were no computers, we had no opportunity to do computers in our formative years. Our aim is to give these children the opportunity to learn technology at an early age,” says Vharanani Consulting's Collen Mashawana.
Adding to this, Mashawana and a few friends spent 67 minutes of the Mandela Day with disadvantaged kids at Thohoyandou Children's Home, where they played with the children and wrapped up their visit by giving gifts and food to the children and a cheque of R5 000 on behalf of Vharanani Consulting.
Mashawana says this donation is a continuation of the company's vision of empowering disadvantaged rural communities. “This is part of our social responsibility, we identify areas where there is need and we do whatever we can to ease the situation and will continue doing so if we have jobs that would bring us something to share with our communities.”
“I have come to realise the importance of education and the computers were just an encouragement to learners at the school not to give up as they could be future leaders through proper education. I am a product of this school and I live not far from it. Since I left, I have noticed that there is so much change here, we never saw a computer during our time and you are lucky that you can at least touch a computer now,” he explains.
He says their donation is just a drop in the ocean compared to the challenges the school faces.
“This is just the beginning, we will come back and we promise we are not buying any favour from the school, but would like to see development at the school. We are not at all impressed by the state of the school and we will go out there and encourage former learners and businesses to give support to the school.”
The acting principal, Eric Mufamadi, says Mashawana has done the school very proud. “We have seen him grow before our eyes and when we taught him, we did not know that we were nurturing a leader and a responsible person who would one day come back and rescue us. Even though the computers are not enough for all the learners, they would at least have the opportunity to learn about them.”
“You might think what you have given us is too little but know that it would make a complete difference to the learners whom some have not seen a computer. We have many challenges and we just hope that you have opened the doors for good things here at our school,” he concludes.
Vho Thovhele Gole Mphaphuli says he is happy that the Mvudi circuit manager Ms Ndivhuho Ramovha and Thulamela mayor Thivhulawi Makumbane were also present.
“You have seen it for yourself, the school is not conducive for learning, we have to join hands and see to it that the school is improved in terms of the infrastructure,“ said Mphaphuli who is also very passionate about education.
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Vharanani Consulting Services (VCS)
Vharanani Consulting Business Services (VCS) is a 100% black-owned company that provides IT consulting services and project management mostly in national, provincial, local Government and state owned entities. Based in Gauteng Province and Limpopo Province, the company employs experts across the range of specialised areas. Its team is diverse, not only in terms of its racial and gender mix, but also in terms of the skills and experience they offer. The growth of Vharanani Properties and the demand from clients for turnkey IT solutions to complement their property requirements resulted in the launch of Vharanani Consulting Services as a stand-alone IT business.
The company focuses on addressing all IT requirements from identifying the deliverables, understanding the business objectives, the budget, the mandate and the delivery timeframes. Vharanani Consulting Services remains close to the implementation to ensure projects are successfully implemented. Vharanani Consulting Services also makes use of partners in the industry through its wide business networks and combined experience in the information technology, construction and development sectors.
As a result of this network, it is able to put together the best combination of skills required by any project and provide the necessary management to ensure an effective outcome within the right time and the allocated budget.
Both shareholders and employees have a very good understanding of Government's challenges, business drive, legislation, mandate and the importance of service delivery. It believes that all institutions - public, private or civil society - have a duty and role in the development process. This commitment to development is visible in its business approach, values and quest for innovation and excellence.
Vharanani Consulting Services remains independent of any hardware or software vendor relationship. As a result, each of its consultants objectively serves as a trusted technology advisor to any market depending on what best suits their environment and strategy. It provides services with honesty, integrity and professionalism. It seeks to create a collaborative partnership with all its clients as it provides innovative and state-of-the-art solutions that ensure efficiency and growth. It has a vision to become a dynamic and value driven organisation achieving excellence in the development of information technology solutions that are current and effective.
The range of services Vharanani Consulting Services offers is limitless from managing a single project to complete IT outsource. Services include assessment, design and implementation, management and support, security and disaster recovery. Its knowledgeable professionals can assist in documenting policies, procedures and controls, and can also assess and implement regulation mandated security and business continuity plans.
Vharanani Consulting Services also provides planning services for strategic planning of development institutions, project formulation, development product design, and implementation planning. Its planning facilitators are experienced in the logical framework approach to planning, as well as objective oriented strategic planning facilitation.
The company has established project management and implementation capacity which provides the following services: programme and project design; output oriented implementation management; financial administration & management; monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects; stakeholder management to ensure that all relevant stakeholders in development programmes are kept informed and supportive of objectives and implementation processes.
Vharanani Consulting Services prides itself on the capacity and skills of its professional staff and associates in order to ensure high quality service.
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