New initiatives

"Out of the Box" Environmental Education Programme

A total amount of R0.5m has been spent developing materials and teacher workshops for the "Out of the Box" programme that aims to demonstrate to both learners and educators the interdependence of mathematics, science and the environment, and their role in our daily lives.

The project has been piloted in 20 primary schools in Gauteng. Workshops and classroom visits started at the end of the third term in 2004. There are 165 teachers currently on the programme and it is impacting on approximately 6 600 learners.

Plans are in place to extend the programme with the Old Mutual Foundation looking at implementing "Out of the Box" in a new cluster of schools in Jeppestown in Gauteng.

Old Mutual Business Hive

The Hive will seek to broker deals between community ventures and business and/or individual customers. The focus is on leveraging the Old Mutual Properties infrastructure, specifically their shopping centres, and the Old Mutual Foundation's focus areas to create opportunities for communities to get their products to markets. In addition, the initiative will provide vital training to community entrepreneurs, eventually benefiting both sellers and buyers.

The Old Mutual Foundation piloted this project in Nelspruit, in collaboration with Ecolink, a local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). Ecolink focuses on empowering community groups and individuals towards independence and renewed self-esteem, through creating opportunities for self-development, education and training.

The Foundation has provided Ecolink with R56 000 to set up a silk screening workshop where unemployed rural women have been trained to manufacture products to sell at a profit to various business and government departments. The women are being paid per item successfully manufactured.

Old Mutual Properties has agreed to the Foundation hiring a "barrow" at The Riverside Mall in Nelspruit, on behalf of Ecolink, where the same women now sell articles manufactured at their silk screening workshop. Old Mutual Properties staff have become involved in the programme, providing retail training to Ecolink, and assisting in the painting and preparation of the barrow, which was launched on 1 October 2004.

Several meetings with Old Mutual Properties have already taken place to secure a piece of land in Washington Square, Khayelitsha that is suitable for the training component of the project. Using one hectare of land for six months will enable the project to train 12 people to not only grow organic vegetables, but also to market and sell their produce. Once the land is secured, the project will commence beyond the pilot phase.