The realisation by two Supply Chain and Operations Management organisations that the challenges they face in their profession are not all that different from those faced by South Africa’s disadvantaged on a daily basis inspired them to build 34 houses in a township community.
Volition Consulting Services, a member of the IMPERIAL Logistics Group, and the Association for Operations Management of Southern Africa (SAPICS), participated in the National Corporate Blitz Build Project staged by Habitat for Humanity SA in October 2011.
Three to 7 October saw one of the largest initiatives with a group of South African public / private employee volunteers coming together to build houses for communities in need. Thirty four houses were built in the Orange Farm Community, a township located approximately 45 km from Johannesburg.
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit Christian organisation embracing the vision “of a world in which every person has a decent place to live” and is part of Habitat for Humanity International, which has branches in more than 80 countries around the world.
“My name is Alice. I am the mother of three children – 27, 23 and 16 years old. We live in Orange Farm in a one room shack. I sleep on the bed with my daughter and my 2 boys sleep on the floor. Our shack leaks and when it rains hard, it becomes impossible to stop the water. When the weather is windy, dust always comes inside the shack. To protect our few belongings against thieves, one person must always be in the shack.”
These words written by an Orange Farm resident motivated the staff of Volition Consulting Services, a member of the IMPERIAL Logistics Group, to mobilise a team to build a house for Alice and her family during the Blitz Build Project. Andrea Brookstein, Managing Assistant in the Marketing and Project Office of Volition commented on the experience: “It has been a great privilege and we are grateful that we could make a difference in this family’s lives. It was such a humbling experience to witness them receiving the key to their own house.”
SAPICS representatives were involved for a day, and assisted the Volition team.
SAPICS also donated olive tree seeds to the worthy cause, depicting the association’s commitment to future growth.
