Swift will donate €10,000 to Norsa Community Care of Wellington, Western Cape as part of its 2015 Africa Regional Conference being held in Cape Town in May.
Cape Town, 7 April 2015 – Swift is supporting NORSA Community Care, based in Wellington in the Western Cape, South Africa, to improve child care facilities for orphaned babies waiting for the adoption process to be finalised. This forms part of Swift’s global corporate social responsibility programme that provides support to a number of non-government organisations in different locations around the world.
Hugo Smit, Head of Sub Sahara Africa, Swift says, “A crucial part of Swift’s community ethos is to make sure that our global CSR programme supports local organisations in countries where our events take place. This year, the African Regional Conference takes place in Cape Town in May and we will be supporting NORSA Community Care in the Western Cape. NORSA does outstanding work supporting children and families in South Africa who are facing enormous difficulties in their day to day life. Swift is delighted to be able to help with its project to build a new infant unit.”
NORSA Community Care was set up in 2006 to change the destiny of children and families in South Africa who are affected or infected with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and extreme poverty. The non-governmental association takes a practical approach, focused on community based projects such as day care centres for pre-school children in need, and week-day meals for school children and their sick or elderly parents. NORSA also plays a critical role in finding families for homeless children and is urgently in need of new facilities for its work with very young infants.
Marietjie Bezuidenhout, a spokesperson for NORSA, says: “We have a baby room where we provide care for babies in need. Most of the babies have been signed off for adoption and need to be cared for somewhere from the day they are discharged from hospital until they can be placed with adoptive parents.
“Currently, the baby room is actually NORSA’s meeting room which has been adapted because we couldn’t find a suitable place. We are in dire need of a proper facility as the babies stay between two to six months depending on the health situation of the child and the legal procedures regarding the adoption process.
“Swift’s donation will enable us to build a brand new, dedicated babies dormitory with all the right facilities to support their needs. This will help to give them the start in life they deserve,” adds, Bezeuidenhout.
The African Regional Conference (ARC) 2015 is at the Westin Hotel, Cape Town, from 5-7 May. For more details, click here. In previous years, alongside the African Regional Conference, the Swift CSR programme has supported charities such as the SOS Children’s Villages in Morocco and Botswana, and the Kampala Children’s Centre in Uganda.
Swift’s CSR activities throughout the world: Caring for our communities
Swift staff around the world are engaged in activities to support their local communities.
Children in need and education
- In 2014, Swift set up a partnership with Teach for Belgium, an association that addresses educational inequality in Belgium by training teachers to better support their students.
- In 2014, we strengthened our partnership with Enactus, a community of students, academic and business leaders committed to entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. For the first time, Swift sponsored the Enactus World Cup in Beijing, during which teams of national Enactus champions from around the world presented the results of their community outreach projects to a group of international business leaders.
- Diversity is important to Swift. In order to encourage gender diversity, Swift set up a partnership with Greenlight for Girls, an international organisation dedicated to encouraging girls of all backgrounds to pursue STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
- We also support children in need by helping charities in locations where we hold events. For instance, at the Asian regional conference in the Philippines Swift donated EUR 15,000 to SOS Children’s Villages in the country to help the victims of last year’s typhoon, whilst at Sibos we donated EUR 40,000 to the Boston Boys and Girls club, which provides a safe haven for over 15,000 children and teens.
Supporting crisis
- Swift staff donated over EUR 8,000 to support the fight against Ebola, the proceeds of which were delivered to Doctors without Borders and the Red Cross. Together with the Wimler Foundation, Swift
- Hong Kong also collected donations for the relief of victims of Typhoon Yolanda, whilst in Kuala Lumpur our staff set up a campaign to help victims of the Malaysian floods.
Staff engagement
- In 2014, over 19% of Swift staff actively got involved in CSR activities directly, as well as through Team with Spirit events which we use to combine team building efforts with charitable activities. Swift staff in several locations also donated blood; staff in the Netherlands donated Christmas baskets to families in need, and in the US staff collected toys for disadvantaged children and donated holiday meals for over 500 families over Thanksgiving.
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,800 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in over 200 countries and territories. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, visit www.swift.com or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: Swift
Atmosphere Communications
Claire Carr
+ 27 (0)11 215 0054
+ 27 (0)83 9281962
clairec@atmosphere.co.za
