17 July 2015
Hillbrow’s Orange Cruyff soccer field and boxing club, part of the BG Alexander Centre, are receiving a facelift on Friday, 17 July, from the Amalgamated Beverage Industries’ (CCBSA) Employee Volunteer Programme – a company-wide Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiative where CCBSA employees give of their time to deliver positive change in communities. The initiative will also form part of CCBSA’s Mandela Day commemoration. One hundred employees from CCBSA Central Region will roll up their sleeves and give the Centre facilities a new lease on life.
CCBSA employees will assist with the refurbishment of the Orange Cruyff soccer field and the Hillbrow Boxing Club, where they will be painting the grounds where various sports are played, installing and setting up benches and shelves for the boxing club as well as planting a vegetable garden among other activities.
The BG Alexander Centre, formerly a nursing home in the heart of Hillbrow, offers many extra-mural activities such as soccer and boxing to children in Hillbrow and surrounding areas. The Centre uses sport as a draw card to positively influence the lives of young people in impoverished communities.
CCBSA Corporate Affairs Director, Tshidi Ramogase, says: “CCBSA employees, as part of our Employee Volunteer Programme, have embraced the spirit of Mandela Day as an inspiration to do more for communities where we operate. Through our programme, employees have turned every day into Mandela Day and have helped numerous communities nationwide with various needs. We are delighted that we could lend a hand and give children in Hillbrow functional facilities that they can use with pride.”
Through the Employee Volunteer Programme, CCBSA supports communities where it operates and provides assistance through the one day community leave given to all CCBSA employees, to execute this work. CCBSA employees donate more than 13 000 hours or 1 650 working days to community service every year. In 2014 alone, over 1 677 employees participated in 20 Employee Volunteer days. “CCBSA invests in the region of R5 million annually in its Employee Volunteer Programme,” concludes Ramogase.
CCBSA Central Region employees will also be dedicating time to provide much needed help at Street Lights School in Jeppestown and Phuthanang Training Centre for the Disabled in Tembisa on Monday 27 July.