A little helping hand is extended in Hammanskraal
A group of employees from a local bottling company have officially come together to form a movement dubbed the Soul Ambassadors. Soul Ambassadors are employees who are passionate about doing good and giving back to their local community. To officially kick off this launch, the new batch of Soul Ambassadors consisting of employees from Pretoria and Highveld started a school uniform drive which assisted in raising funds to purchase school uniform for needy learners at Sekampaneng Primary School in Hammanskraal.
The Soul Ambassador Movement which was officially started in 2012 by Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) was created for employees who are passionate about the community and giving of their own time to deliver positive change in the communities where the business operates. The business supports these individuals by providing them with time outside of the office to execute projects as well as funding for implementation.
CCBSA encourages their employees to actively seek initiatives that need assistance, which was the case when Bella Tshoke (Engineering Stocks Controller, CCBSA) suggested that the group help Sekampaneng Primary School. “I wanted us as Soul Ambassadors to help this school as it’s the only primary school in the area and is extremely populated with about 1600 children in the school. Many of the learners are without their parents and they depend on assistance from their grandparents, which as we know is not always enough”, says Tshoke.
The group of Soul Ambassadors was well received by the teachers and learners at the school. There were sounds of loud jubilation and dancing as the team handed over the uniforms that had been collected over the past month. “You have opened our hearts and made a difference to a South African child. A child who did not have shoes and uniform can now proudly wear their uniform because of you. Thank you CCBSA, we hope that this is the beginning of more good things to come”, says the Principal of the School, Duduzile Ntuna.
Corporate Citizenship is integral to CCBSA’s growth strategy and is seen as an enabler to achieving CCBSA’s commercial agenda. We as a business, aim to support and grow initiatives that enable us to develop our local communities, allowing us to form sustainable relationships with one of our key stakeholders, our customers.