Sappi provides Covid-19 relief to Zululand communities

When the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe at the beginning of 2020, it highlighted the plight of many of the more vulnerable communities, especially those situated in the rural areas of our country and in our neighbouring communities. With this in mind, Sappi Southern Africa stepped in and donated scarce and essential items to assist and provide some relief in these difficult times.

Working closely with the Traditional Councils in Sokhulu, KwaMthethwa, Hluhluwe, Mbazwane and Manguzi, Sappi Forests in Zululand identified those households considered as being the most vulnerable in these areas. Since April this year Sappi has donated thousands of litres of sanitiser, thousands of kilograms of porridge and thousands of cloth and surgical masks and soap to hundreds of households, community clinics, health care centres, schools, creches, orphanages and other non-profit organisations.

Longer-term projects

But besides donating these goods to surrounding communities and providing much-needed relief, the pandemic also highlighted several areas in which the company was able to offer innovative product solutions or to unlock future longer-term opportunities for surrounding communities. This is in keeping with the company’s purpose statement: that Sappi exists to build a thriving world by unlocking the power of renewable resources to benefit people, communities and the planet. In this regard, Sappi was able to refocus its efforts to produce the company’s first prototype hand sanitiser and has since gone on to introduce Valida, a highly fibrillated 100% biodegradable and sustainable natural cellulose product derived from wood fibre as part of a hand sanitiser formulation. Sappi also activated a programme at its Skills Centre at the Saiccor Mill in Umkomaas into producing cloth masks, distributed to own and contractor employees and to neighbouring schools, when masks became compulsory. Local unemployed youths are now enrolled in a course in producing PPE items.

Sappi was also pleased to see that other socio-economic initiatives that it has been supporting for many years, were able to turn the negatives of the Covid-19 pandemic into positives for themselves and their communities. One such example was the Abashintshi programme, where Sappi-trained youngsters used their social networks and their power to communicate to distribute useful information created in English and isiZulu by Sappi Southern Africa about curbing the spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus. A Sappi-sponsored programme which helps communities adjacent to our plantations to become beekeepers, also showed resilience by harvesting about five tons of honey, earning close to R360 000, despite the national lockdown.

Although the Covid-19 crisis and globally challenging circumstances has had an adverse impact on Sappi’s business and profitability, product demand in certain sectors – like packaging – is showing improvement and has also led to product innovation in others. Sappi is confident that its focus on innovation and the strength of its R&D departments will continue to stand us in good stead into the post-Covid era, as has already been witnessed by some of the innovations that have emerged during this extraordinary time in the company’s existence.