Lilly shows its “hands and hearts” on Global Day of Service

Lily staff after completing their walk

In South Africa, sponsored walks were arranged at both Sizwe TB Hospital in Edenvale, Johannesburg and Gugulethu Clinic in Cape Town. Lilly staff, members of the Lilly MDR-TB partnership and other volunteers walked to raise funds for each respective establishment. The Lilly Foundation guaranteed a handsome monetary contribution for each mile (1,6km) walked.

At the Sizwe event, award-winning afro pop group, Malaika spoke to the crowds, which included MDR-TB patients from the hospital, about the importance of completing their TB medication and staying healthy to beat the disease. Malaika lost their band member Jabu Ndaba to TB last year. Energetic band members, Tshidi Mohola and Bongani Nchang then entertained the crowds by performing some of their top selling songs.

“One of the key projects that employees were encouraged to participate in was the Transfer of Hope Walk to help raise awareness and money for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), one of our flagship corporate social responsibility projects. Given the incidence of MDR-TB in SA and the challenges that we face addressing this pandemic, the walk was an obvious choice for us to participate in.

In Johannesburg, we partnered with Sizwe Hospital as our beneficiary and we had over 140 walkers join us for this fundraising walk. We were really amazed at how motivated and eager Lilly employees and other participants were in making a difference and tackling this disease with their “hands and hearts”, says Lilly's MDR-TB project co-ordinator, Tintswalo Shikwambane.

Lilly's Global Day of Service is the signature event for the company's "Hands and Hearts" programme, which was launched in 2007 to enhance and encourage employee involvement with non-profit organisations. In 2008, Lilly's philanthropic contributions totaled approximately US$350 million, 80% of which was product donations for patient assistance programs, the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership, and international humanitarian causes.

Last year, more than 20,000 Lilly employees from more than 50 global locations participated, making Lilly's Global Day of Service one of the world's largest-ever corporate volunteer events to take place on a single day. In Indianapolis, Lilly's corporate headquarters, last year's event was a catalyst that generated nearly 30,000 hours of volunteer time in a single day toward community improvement projects in Central Indiana.