Anglo American moulds Hillbrow charity
JOBURG - The Chairman's Fund of Anglo American is making a difference to the socio-economic development of homeless and unemployed people in Johannesburg's Inner City.
One of the beneficiaries of the funding is an organisation called Mould, Empower, Serve, founded in 1986 as a feeding scheme in Hillbrow and commonly referred to as Mes.
In 2008, Mes began operating duplicate services in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, and recently Kempton Park. On average, Mes reaches about 4 800 people per year across all its branches.
Since 2010, the fund has provided R2 million towards the core costs of Mes, which includes skills development, job placement, and residential care. It has also supported the strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation systems of the organisation.
As a result, in 2012, Mes secured 735 part-time and 230 full-time jobs for the people it provides services to, trained and assisted 856 people in securing employment, and provided 466 people with social service support.
Mes national manager, Leona Pienaar said Anglo American funding was not merely about funding, but also revolved around partnerships, “as it has been able to help us solve some of the challenges faced by the organisation and also shared ideas regarding best practice”.
Chairman’s Fund chairperson, Norman Mbazima, said the fund strove to make a tangible difference in uplifting disempowered people, by partnering with organisations that have the proven means to effect change.
