TWO weeks ago, I started to write about some Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) which have been carried out by some companies in the energy sector.
This is to underscore the importance of CSR as an investment and not as a waste. In addition, the companies which undertake CSR need to be commended and recognised as some of them are hardly covered by main stream media regardless of the size of the CSR.
To touch someone’s life, you do not necessarily need to wait until you have accumulated a huge CSR parcel. Mother Theresa once said, “we ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if the drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of the missing drop.”
In addition, Mother Teresa said, “I do not agree with a big way of doing things. What matters is the individual. If we wait till we get numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers and we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person.”
In today’s world where organisations strive for good corporate citizenship, diversity in the way organisations give back is fundamental. You will be surprised when I share about some of the CSR which has quietly been done yet it touches thousands of lives in this country.
In this article, I will write about the CSR which Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) donated recently. CEC despite significant challenges it has gone through in the past 12 months rose to the occasion and demonstrated industry statesmanship.
CEC donated hospital beds and mattresses worth K233, 000 to Kitwe Teaching Hospital to mitigate the critical shortage of beds and mattresses due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most hospitals have been full to capacity with patients.
A few weeks ago, we lost a relative to Covid who spent a night on a hospital chair while on oxygen due to lack of bed space. Very painful indeed.
The intervention by CEC to complement the work of Government through this gesture is commendable as it increases the number of beds and mattresses required at the Kitwe Teaching Hospital.
What makes it even more touching is that CEC has gone through considerable challenges in the past 12 months yet after deep reflection upon the challenges at one of our largest hospitals in the nation, it stood up, reached out and made the burden lighter by its contribution.
Generally speaking, CEC has been fairly strong with regard to investing in CSR. CEC has been the sole sponsor of Power Dynamos; one of the leading and biggest football teams in the country which has produced some outstanding football players who have represented Zambia at the world stage of football.
It is extremely expensive to run a football team at the highest level on top of managing other sports activities.
CEC has over the years invested in the education and academic development of science and engineering in Zambia through working with various institutions including the University of Zambia. CEC’s contributions include:
- Building a 98 bed space dormitory at Muchinshi Secondary School in Chingola at a cost of K2.4 million fully furnished with bunker beds and mattresses, a kitchen, a common room, ablution blook, laundry facilities and a water reticulation system consisting of a borehole and a 5, 000-litre capacity water storage tank.
- Sustained support to the Junior Engineers Technicians and Scientists (JETS) over the years. The support includes sponsorship of the Northern Region and National Fairs and assigning CEC Engineers as Adjudicators of various categories at no cost to JETS.
- CEC has a Graduate Development Programme that has since its initiation in 2005 benefitted at least 30 graduates all of whom were employed by the company. Students are put on an 18-month-long programme and upon completion, they are confirmed into a suitable department at senior staff level and continue development after which they could be confirmed as Sectional Engineers.
- In terms of industrial attachment, training institutions such as UNZA, CBU, Northern Technical College, Copperstone University, Zambia Institute for Business Studies and Industrial Practice have over the years sent students to CEC that takes on an average of 50 students per year.
- CEC has rehabilitated the lecture rooms, installed modern teaching aids (projectors, screens, white boards, etc.) and constructed a false roof in the School of Engineering at UNZA.
CEC was involved in the design and construction of the $1.3 million mini grid high voltage sub-station (comprised of two substations 11kV/66kV and associated control room) for educational purposes at the School of Engineering; whose objective is to help reduce the skills gap in engineering students by exposing them to the actual electrical equipment/machinery used in industry.
This project was implemented under the Education Partnership in Africa an initiative of the University of Manchester and other stakeholders, and which CEC was key to initiate.
Its primary aim is to provide assistance to the UNZA and Copperbelt University in the areas of staff training, provision of training aids and infrastructure rehabilitation.
Generally, CEC has taken a structured approach that takes care of all levels of development while helping to close the identified gap. It is also involved in large scale tree planting programmes to mitigate the impact of deforestation among numerous other initiatives.
*Johnstone Chikwanda is an energy expert and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Zambia, a PhD candidate at Johnson University, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
