CSI INITIATIVES
With so many worthy causes looking for support, the decision as to which ones to select wasn’t easy, but ultimately those that align with RamsayMedia’s objectives of promoting literacy, education and skills development –crucial in the media environment – as well as recycling and carbon footprint reduction, were chosen.
RamsayMedia also aims to run a countrywide ad agency competition biennially, with the winners selecting worthy causes to benefit from advertising space in the company’s media throughout the year. The RamsayRacer competition in 2010 saw Wines with heart, the WWF’s International Rhino Campaign and Foodbank SAbenefiting from R750 000 worth of media space. 2012 will see the launch of Picture the Change campaign – so keep an eye out for this.
Initiatives that have benefited through the RamsayMAD initiatives over the last couple of years are Greenpop, Learn to Earn, Matla a Bana, Spread the Bread and Rally to READ. These are our corporate ‘headline’ CSI initiatives, while charities such as SANNCOB and The Put Foot Rally have benefited through the efforts of the individual brands in our stable.
PROJECTS
Greenpop
RamsayMedia is the media partner for Greenpop, a social enterprise that has achieved great things in their short existence. Greenpop’s mission is to bring a ‘treevolution’ to ‘undergreened’ schools and crèches on the Cape Flats and elsewhere.
RamsayMedia is an active supporter of Greenpop, which involves staff and readers in tree-plantings plus media support across print, digital, social media and eventing platforms.
Learn to Earn
Learn to Earn is a non-profit skills development and job creation organisation, working with unemployed people from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. With its motto of ‘a hand up – not a hand out,’ they seek to develop people, especially unemployed people, socially, economically, emotionally and spiritually. The vision is ‘to eradicate unemployment and other legacies of injustice in South Africa’. Through providing a programme that recognizes human dignity and the human right to live a meaningful life, Learn to Earn aims to assist individuals to regain their self-respect, and do this by empowering them to provide for themselves and for their families.
RamsayMedia supports Learn to Earn’s fundraising initiatives by giving media exposure, back issues and prizes to their annual fund-raising Golf Day, purchasing subscription premiums from their Job Creation projects such as Khanya Creations, and hosting site visits from prospective Graphic Design interns from their Computer Training course. Combining two worthy causes, RamsayMedia proposed and facilitated the Learn to Earn Graphic Design students doing the creative for Foodbank’s media campaign when they were chosen as RamsayRacer winners.
Matla a Bana
Matla A Bana is a charity project initiated and managed by the Callie and Monique Strydom Charity Trust, founded upon the return of Callie and Monique Strydom after a 4-month hostage ordeal in Southeast Asia. At the end of 2002 Monique Strydom was asked to chair a task team t
hat investigated child rape in South Africa. A need for an organization which could address all the grey areas in the child protection system in South Africa arose and the Strydom Trust undertook to address this need. Matla a Bana is a National organization, with predominant focus in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
Matla a Bana: A Voice against Child Abuse is RamsayMedia's charity of choice for Mandela Day. 2010 saw the launch of this initiative and RamsayMedia plans to make an annual event of this. The staff of RamsayMedia raise funds and assemble comfort packs for child rape victims.
Spread the Bread
Believing that no child can study on an empty stomach, RamsayMAD started Spread the Bread, an initiative that provides sandwiches for the children of Protea Primary School in Bonteheuwel on the Cape Flats (soup in winter). 250 sandwiches are delivered to Protea Primary each Friday of the school term to assist the school with the children’s feeding requirements.
Rally to READ
The Rally to Read was launched in 1998 when the HSRC (Human Sciences Research Council), approached McCarthy to lend them a 4x4. Such a vehicle was needed by the HSRC to reach some of the most remote rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal as part of a study of school resources. Upon their return the researchers shared with McCarthy the schools’ desperate lack of educational resource and one of the most successful rural educational initiatives in the country was born.
What was to be a once-off expedition quickly became an annual, national project. For the past 12 years sponsors, organisers and participants of the Rally have visited the most remote and needy schools in rural areas to deliver books, teaching aids, science kits, sports equipment, educational toys and other material – all of which are taken for granted at urban schools. But most of all, the Rally delivers hope for a better future to rural learners, their teachers and their parents.
RamsayMedia’s involvement in Rally to READ goes back many years. In addition to donating money and magazines each year, the company actively participates in the rallies to under-resourced rural schools also gives the annual event editorial and social media coverage.
Recycling
Conscious of the environmental impact of its activities, the company implemented recycling at head office from 2011 through two greening companies, eLiquidity and No Standing. Collected recyclable waste is taken back to their factory for sorting, helping to provide further employment opportunities.
April 2012 saw the launch of the RamsayMedia in-office Keen2bGreen campaign in support of Green Office Week.
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Matla a Bana: A Voice against Child Abuse is RamsayMedia's charity of choice for Mandela Day. 2010 saw the launch of this initiative and RamsayMedia plans to make an annual event of this. The staff of RamsayMedia raise funds and assemble comfort packs for child rape victims.5.jpg)
Believing that no child can study on an empty stomach, RamsayMAD started Spread the Bread, an initiative that sees the staff providing sandwiches for the children of Protea Primary School in Bonteheuwel on the Cape Flats.
RamsayMedia’s involvement in 
Recycling
FoodBank South Africa (FBSA) is leading a large-scale co-ordinated effort to establish food banks in communities with the highest concentration of food insecure people.
The Put Foot Rally is Southern Africa’s first social rally – a team adventure spanning seven countries over 17 days. Getaway was the official media partner of the Put Foot Rally 2011 (June/July 2011), and had a crew participating in the epic event. The rally participants also raised funds for the Bobs for Good Foundation – an initiative which aims to provide school shoes to South African children. The Getaway team drove a VW Amorak sponsored by 4x4 Mega World which was kitted out extensively for the 17 day journey.
