Absa bank has embarked on a campaign to integrate its brand with a culture of community involvement in all its divisions. The campaign is called ‘I am Absa and proud of itâ€.
According to Jacqueline Biddulph, consultant for corporate social investment for the Absa Employee Community Involvement project, each employee is a torch-bearer for the Absa brand. This means that whatever an employee does or wherever an employee goes, he or she represents Absa.
With this spirit of community involvement, branches have raised R1-million by selling Aids badges and, in May last year, the company was awarded lifetime membership of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
The community involvement project aims to raise funds and volunteer services to help communities. ‘The aim of the programme is to encourage social awareness and promote social responsibility among Absa employees,†says Biddulph.
Projects supported by the programme include the National Council for People with Physical Disabilities. The Absa branch network raised R2,3-million for people with disabilities last year.
HIV/Aids awareness and support is another area of focus. An Aids
day campaign was launched to create awareness about living positively with the disease. After forming a partnership with the SABC last year Absa came up with the theme, ‘We need change. Let’s make a difference together.â€
More than 5 000 employees now contribute to a Give As You Earn (Gaye) campaign that was initiated in November 2001 to raise funds for HIV/Aids projects. During 2002 and 2003 Gaye raised R1,1 million — money that is being ploughed into HIV/Aids projects as well as projects for the elderly and the disabled.
Staff have voted to make children and HIV/Aids the focus area of their activities and fund-raising during the 2003/04 financial year. They want to support prevention of mother-to-child transmission and rape survivor programmes.
Another popular cause supported by staff is the purchase of feeding formula for babies, to prevent HIV being transmitted by breastfeeding. They also support the provision of counselling and anti-retroviral drugs for rape survivors.
To acknowledge the employees’ volunteerism, Absa launched a
fund in December 2002 to match individual and team efforts. The
Absa Foundation has made R500 000 available so far.
A Johannesburg-based employee, Catherine Fravenstein, gives her spare time to children from The House On The Rock, a home for abandoned children, children
with HIV/Aids and orphans. She
takes the children on outings to the zoo, entertains them at pool parties and treats them to an end-of-year Christmas party.
‘It’s very rewarding seeing the children getting enjoyment out of the activities I come up with.
I’m not doing it just because of
Absa; it all comes from the heart. It
is fulfilling,†she says.
Rupert Oberholster, an employee in the group’s IT division, and his wife have registered their home as a place of safety for newborn babies and have looked after several babies over the past few years.
In Cape Town, Sylvia Curry and
her team in group administration raise funds for The Haven, a shelter in Woodstock. They have held
raffles, craft markets and competitions and collect donations — the proceeds of which have been
used to buy curtains and bedspreads for the three dormitories at The Haven.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Meg Fahey and team members in the home loans division held a paperchase to raise funds for John Conradie House, an old-age home.
These are just a few examples of voluntary initiatives under-
taken by employees around the country. Biddulph says that by getting the general public to participate in the events or make donations, many of the campaigns also provide good networking opportunities
for staff.
Absa rewards volunteerism by running internal competitions, giving prestige awards and featuring star performers in its internal newspaper, Abacus, and on the staff television channel.