THE Vital Foundation has donated R 8.5 million to over a dozen charities around the country fighting one of South Africa’s greatest scourges – women and child abuse.
A total of R2.7 million was raised for the first funding cycle of 2015 backed by income derived from the R1 makes a difference campaign.
The donation has come at a time when the pandemic, prolific in South African schools is having a devastating effect on the health and education of learners, mainly girls.
With actual incidence difficult to determine as many cases go unreported, a 2008 Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation report reflected a dramatic rise in reported sexual offences in recent decades. From 15 000 rapes in 1986, the figure had almost multiplied by four less than 20 years later, with a striking proportion of the populating being male perpetrators.
Launched two years ago, the Vital Foundation is the charitable arm of Vital Health Foods, the country’s oldest and best-known vitamins and nutritional supplements brand. The foundation is committed to funding non-profit organisations that fight women and child abuse while at the same time becoming a premier resource for information-sharing around the issue.
“Our fundamental principle is ‘healthy bodies, healthy minds’, which implies that a well-looked-after body can make better, more informed choices – especially when it comes to helping others, like women and children in distress. So, as a business, but also as practitioners of healthy, wholesome living, we can make a positive difference in the lives of others,” said George Grieve, managing director of Vital Health Foods.
A local organisation that received a grant ranging from R65 000 to R150 000 was Youth For Christ in Umgeni, Durban, which has been active since the 1980s, and targets primarily street children and marginalised youth, creating opportunities for holistic development (mental, physical, spiritual and social) of young people.
Other organisations in other parts of the country which received grants were CSC North in Gauteng, Families South Africa (Highveld Ridge) in Mpumalanga, Cape Mental Health, Ons Plek in Cape Town, Lifeline Zululand, Johannesburg and Western Cape, Umtata Child Abuse Resource Centre, Badisa in Bellville, Western Cape, Vanderbijlpark Trauma Counselling Empowerment Centre, Women of Vision, Dockda Rural Development Agency in the Northern Cape, and Nisaa Institute for Women’s Development in Gauteng.
“Business can play a larger, more meaningful role in alleviating women and child abuse. I believe we have a responsibility, in the interests of a more stable, thriving society, to do as much as we can to make a difference,” Grieve said.
