Deloitte Impacts Socio-Economic Development

Correspondent | Monday December 2, 2019 08:05

Impact Day is a celebration of Deloitte’s commitment to local communities. Member firms around the world host Impact Day activities where Deloitte professionals spend the day doing voluntary work.

Through the arrangement Deloitte employees take the opportunity to share their knowledge, expertise and talents to contribute to socio-economic development.

Activities include developing strategic business plans for social enterprises, delivering lessons on business ethics and values in schools, hosting skills-building workshops for not-for-profit leaders, and providing skills-development programmes and mentoring to young people.

This year, Deloitte selected ‘Learn to Play’ (Ithute go Tshameka) as its beneficiary.

There are villages within Botswana that Ithute go Tshameka reaches where children don’t have exposure to any early childhood education. The Learn To Play curriculum enables mothers to establish Community Initiated Playgroups. The Playgroups are child-centred, age-appropriate and culturally relevant to form a bridge between children’s community life and formal education.

The mothers have also been guided and trained on entrepreneurship and skills that they can use to generate revenue.

The key objective is to ensure that the ‘mamapreneurs’ and children are better equipped for the rest of their lives and in turn break the cycle of poverty.

Learn to Play facilitators are 100% Batswana women experienced and qualified in Early Childhood Development (ECD) enabling the entire programme to be deliverable in both English and Setswana.

Deloitte selected ‘Learn to Play’ as sustainability is key and the organisation covers many areas of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals such as the eradication of poverty, women empowerment and education, to name a few.

“It made perfect sense to support this organisation that is making impact across Botswana.

Deloitte is inspired by what is being done for impoverished communities and impressed with the work the mamapreneurs are doing to uplift their communities,” said Evgeniya Kyuchukova-Troanska, Audit Partner, who heads the company’s Social Responsibility Committee.

To equip the 15 mamapreneurs with the necessary financial skills, Deloitte employees facilitated a financial literacy training that covered revenue; sales of goods, calculating profit and loss, trading statements, pricing of products, reinvesting and budgeting.

The mamapreneurs not only walked away with new skills but also with three sewing machines that will be used to sew various products and generate income.

“I’ve learnt a lot.

How to budget, one can’t use money without budgeting. When one does something like gardening or sewing, one needs to know how much their seeds, threads and needles cost. Then one works time and how much one can sell the seeds for,” said Boipelo, a delighted Mamapreneur.

Another group of employees volunteered to set up vegetable beds and plant various vegetables at the community hall in Bontleng. This will also result in future sustainability and income generation for the mamapreneurs.

Deloitte employees with artistic talents grouped to paint the play group building at Gopong, creating a colourful environment for the children.

“It was refreshing to step out of the office and away from our laptops, to make a difference to the community, I also realised what a few hours of my time can do, by simply giving back,” said Deloitte employee, Ratie Gabaresepe.

Deloitte & Touche spent P75, 000 worth of materials and contributions on the 2019 Impact Day activities.

Country managing partner, Max Marinelli emphasised that Impact Day is not a once off project.

He highlighted that it is a continuous commitment and encourages the spirit of sustained volunteering.

Marinelli added that a large portion of Deloitte employees are millennials, and Deloitte’s 2018 Millennial survey revealed that a key driver when choosing an employer is whether the business is focused on society wellbeing.