Community

Volunteering time is a new trend in corporate social responsibility, which demonstrates employees’ willingness to get involved with initiatives in a hands-on way. During 2008, employee volunteering was introduced at the Johannesburg corporate office of AngloGold Ashanti.

AngloGold Ashanti launched its Hearts of Gold programme at the corporate office in 2004. The programme encourages corporate office employees to donate money to non-profit, charitable organisations - whatever amount the employee chooses to donate is then matched by the company, doubling the impact.

In 2008 a new component to the Hearts of Gold programme was formally introduced: that of employee volunteerism. In 2007, corporate office volunteers gave their time to painting a recreational hall at the Abraham Kriel School in Langlaagte, Johannesburg, and 2008 saw an increase in the number of ongoing volunteers.

VOLUNTEERING TIME, NOT JUST MONEY

“Volunteerism has been one of the corporate office’s ways of offering social support to surrounding communities, and it strengthens partnerships between our employees and the communities. Volunteering also gives expression to AngloGold Ashanti’s value that we want the communities in which we operate to be better off for AngloGold Ashanti having been there,” says Linah Moeketsi, Social Investment Practitioner and the project coordinator for Hearts of Gold.

This reflects the growing trend in corporate social investment to ask not just for cash donations, but the donation of time, skills and expertise.

Several different volunteering-orientated events were hosted by the Johannesburg office during 2008, which asked employees to volunteer their time, as well as donate different items to chosen charity organisations.

The first ever “bring a boy child to work” day was held in March 2008, where over 40 employees got involved. The day included workshops with the boys on different careers in the mining industry, followed by several employees volunteering for the boys to shadow them for the day. This event received local media publicity, as AngloGold Ashanti was one of the first companies in Johannesburg to have a dedicated career day for boys.

The second event was a volunteer day at the Mapetla day care centre, located in Soweto, where volunteers (including CEO Mark Cutifani) worked in the garden, read books, painted children’s faces and played games with them.

HEARTS OF GOLD RESPONDS TO XENOPHOBIA ATTACKS

A winter drive saw the distribution of blankets and food parcels at the refugee camp sites set up around Johannesburg in response to the xenophobic attacks that took place during 2008. The winter drive also saw a blanket distribution in the nearby area of Hillbrow, with the assistance of Metro Evangelical Services, an organisation that AngloGold Ashanti has been working with for the past six years - assisting with the homeless in and around the Johannesburg city centre and encouraging skills training and development.

From the outset, the AngloGold Ashanti Fund has been actively involved in helping develop the Hearts of Gold programme. Presently the fund’s involvement is to disburse the company’s matched donation amounts through the Charities Aids Foundation of South Africa, a non-profit organisation that has assisted in developing and implementing Hearts of Gold.