Pretoria, 17 February 2020: For more than 10 years, HSBC has been in partnership with SOS Children’s Villages South Africa, mostly through its Future First programme, supporting young people with access to education and life-skills.
This February HSBC, donated 110 new laptops and monitors to SOS Children’s Villages South Africa at an event held at SOS Children’s Village Mamelodi, Pretoria.
The 110 laptops and monitors will be distributed to the 11 SOS Children’s Villages programmes across the country. They will be used for SOS’ digital village programme, which aims to bridge the digital divide, tackle social ills through technology, and make information readily accessible to the children and youth. This initiative also seeks to improve literacy skills, develop digital skills and improve the youth’s employability skills. SOS Children’s Villages IT team will further offer to the children and youth cyber security training to raise awareness about data protection, cyber bullying and social media.
“The issue of youth unemployment and lack of skills are challenging issues that need to be addressed, especially within the South African context where more than half of all young people are unemployed,” says Mandy Spies SOS Children’s Villages’ Corporate Fundraiser.
HSBC has also given bursaries to over 50 of SOSSA’s tertiary students. This contributes to creating academically independent students who are well equipped to bridge the gap between life before and life after high school. It helps SA’s most marginalised young people develop the necessary skills that will make them more employable.
This partnerships talks to SOS’ 2030 vision, to simplify the organisation, to innovate child care and to empower young people.
