Click here to listen to the message from The Salvation Army to all radio stations thanking them for helping the organisation communicate its messages to the community. Johannesburg community radio station, Radio Today, broadcast this message on its behalf.

Click here to listen to the mp3 advert for CTI Education Group. Quo Vadis Communications wrote the script for the advert.

Click here to listen to the mp3 advert for The Salvation Army's anti-human trafficking message

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, President of African Monitor addressed press at the organisation's media conference held late last year in Johannesburg. African Monitor launched its 2011 Development Support Monitor Report which is a first in a series of publications that will look at various questions to promote an inclusive agenda to achieve the African Moment for grassroots communities.

Click here to watch the footage taken by News24 at the Long Walk for Rhino's Mandela Day initiative at Robben Island School. (QVC donated Media Liaison to this initiative as part of its Mandela Day initiatives)

 Quo Vadis Communications on a field trip to KwaZulu Natal for client, Siyazisiza Trust.

Victoria Makalima, assistant Director for the Johnson and Johnson Burn Treatment Centre (left) and Roger Crawford, Executive Director, Worldwide Government Affairs and Policy for Johnson & Johnson (back right) happily assisted Nurse Ester Manson and clinical officer William Kalua from Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi throughout their two-week specialised training session at the Burn Treatment Centre at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. The training took place as a result of a public private partnership between the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Johnson & Johnson, and the University of North Carolina in USA. The hospital in Malawi recently opened a burn unit and the hands-on training Ester and William received at the leading burn treatment centre in Africa, will no doubt make a huge difference in the lives of those in need.

The Bench Marks Foundation has successfully completed the year-long training of 19 community activists drawn from the country’s platinum and gold mining communities in the Limpopo, North West and Gauteng provinces.

This initiative by the Bench Marks Foundation aims at developing the capacity of local communities in monitoring the actions of mining corporations and government while encouraging them to take action when they indentify destruction of the environment and the undermining of community life by the mining companies.

The community monitors use online blogs, Facebook and other new media channels as a mechanism for feedback to the Bench Marks Foundation and the world about the situation in their communities and also for networking with each other.

Eric Mokuoa, a spokesperson of the Bench Marks Foundation’s monitoring project said, “Our objective is to see communities taking charge of their environment and being more aware of what’s happening and getting involved.

“We believe that change should come from the grassroots, from the communities themselves because they are directly impacted on by the actions of mining corporations and government.”

This is the second group to graduate from the project which was set up in 2009.  Last year’s pioneering group is still actively involved in this vibrant community monitoring project.

The Bench Marks Foundation believes that this project will play a key role in the empowerment of mining communities that are often at the receiving end of unscrupulous practices by mining corporations as they don’t know their rights and feel helpless.

“Making corporations accountable is to do with government formulating the right policies and making rules which ensure that the policies are implemented. But we know from our experience that corporations don’t always work within the rules.

“Making corporates accountable is not fully possible without the active monitoring and collective action of the larger community and in particular, the action of the people who are directly affected by corporations,” said The Rt Rev Dr Jo Seoka, the chairperson of the Bench Marks Foundation.

The recently trained community activists are based in the platinum mining villages of Rustenburg, Magobading and Sterwater-Gapila in Limpopo, the townships of Sebokeng and Bophelong in the Vaal and the gold mining areas on the East Rand.

ENDS

Bench Marks Foundation is an independent organisation monitoring corporate performance in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with the focus on social sustainability and economic empowerment. The organisation encourages CSR that goes beyond reporting mechanisms and focuses on the gap between policy and practice, thereby assisting civil society groups and corporations to move beyond philanthropy to more strategic interventions that benefit both the corporations and society. Central to Bench Marks’ agenda is how CSR is integrated into companies’ operations and ensuring that it is at the core of every decision making process.

Last changed: Dec 21 2010 at 11:03 PM