Company news: Netcare's Mother and Child Trust appoints Corporate Social Investment (CSI) project

LUCARC operate in the Oliver Tambo Municipality in the Eastern Cape. They strive to ensure the wellbeing of child abuse victims with particular emphasis on orphaned, vulnerable children. Besides caring for these children, they facilitate:

·the improvement of the legal representation for orphans, vulnerable and abused children;
·programmes to educate families, parents and communities on children's rights;
·the formation of protective forums for abused women and children;
·the rehabilitation of perpetrators of domestic violence and child abuse;
·changing the mindset on how the community handles the issue of HIV and Aids; and
·ensuring that the children's rights, as enshrined in the constitution of South Africa, are adhered to so as to improve the livelihoods of all children.

The Mother and Child Trust is one of four trusts that forms part of Netcare's Health Partners for Life (HPFL) initiative. The independent trustees of the Mother and Child Trust are Mr Lungile Mazwai, Mr Stefaan Sithole and Ms Ntjantja Ned. In 2005 Netcare concluded a BBBEE transaction transferring 160 million shares to the HPFL trusts for a range of beneficiaries in a deal worth R1 billion.

Dr Victor Litlhakanyane, Director of Group Stakeholder Relations at Netcare, explains the hospital group's involvement with LUCARC: “Our assistance to LUCARC will be rolled out over three years as part of a phased approach. In the first year we will focus on the promotion of positive lifestyles through youth leadership programmes, youth clubs and reproductive health education, as well as consultative meetings with parents and other stakeholders.”

Reverend Mthimkhulu Msikinya who heads up LUCARC describes Netcare's involvement as a saving grace. “Since we started with these youth programmes, clubs and education drives, we have received reports from the communities in which we are active that the youth are exhibiting positive behavioural changes. Teenagers are vying to be included in the programmes as they want to be seen as role models within their communities,” he says.

Dr Litlhakanyane says that Netcare understands the importance of transformation and the fact that the company's success is implicitly intertwined with those of the communities in which it operates. “We want our participation in these communities to have a positive outcome with regards to behaviour changes as well as better access to healthcare facilities, services and education. On a financial level we are also happy to report that, since the HPFL transaction took place in 2005, almost R900 million in equity value has been created for the HPFL beneficiaries and capital distributions of R88 million have been paid.”

He continues: “We prefer community involvement projects that promote the broadening of access to quality healthcare and are always on the lookout for such worthy projects to become involved in. We are confident that the CSI project we have chosen and the three appointed anchor beneficiaries of the Mother and Child Trust will positively contribute to this ideal.”