Gibela shines a light on girls during Women’s Month
Three years ago, when Gibela Rail took occupation of its factory in Dunnottar, the company viewed this as a move that would also bring the company closer to the issues of its neighbouring communities.
As a way of going about understanding the needs of its surrounding communities, Gibela said it developed a community outreach plan that would outline a needs assessment as well as a roadmap of how the organisation would play an active role in community matters.
“Our first point of call was getting to know our neighbours better and hearing directly from them where we would need to play a role in alleviating some of the socio-economic challenges of the region. During an extensive listening exercise, our local stakeholders were vocal about community challenges and the social ills faced by the residents of Ekurhuleni,” Loyiso Jiya (communications officer) said.
Gibela subsequently launched the Make-A-Difference initiative which set out to create a two-way dialogue with local stakeholders, as well as focusing on lending a helping hand. Surrounding communities such as Alrapark and Duduza form an important part of Gibela’s value chain and the company’s localisation strategy demands that they source locally. To date, Gibela has employed over 1700 people from the area and has spent R30 million on local projects.
For Women’s Month, Gibela initiated a programme that empowers young girls who are living under disadvantaged circumstances, to lead better and fulfilling lives. In partnership with Duduza’s Inxuso Community Project, Gibela has hosted a community soup kitchen initiative in Duduza on August 14, as part of its Women’s Month roll-out donating school shoes and sanitary towels to girls.
This is one way of contributing towards the personal change in young girls as well as to strengthen and capacitate community-based programmes that can intervene in the lives of girls living under difficult circumstances. Various other community drop-off initiatives are planned throughout the month, bringing Gibela’s contribution to 300 school shoes and 600 hygiene packs in total.
“It is a difficult reality for some girls who can miss up to 50 days of school per year due to a lack of access to adequate feminine hygiene. Achieving equitable dignity in South Africa requires a special intervention for girls to manage their needs with normalcy and dignity,” Jiya concluded.
