Social & Community, Employment, Dec. 10, 2020, 7:02 p.m.

SAB Foundation - What a unique year 2020 has been!

Author: riaan@wecanchange.co.za

We are delighted to announce the finalists in our 2020 Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards. The innovations this year include solutions for taxi operators, agribusiness crowdfunding, medical aid cover and the hearing impaired.

Instead of meetings in office board rooms, we are logging on to meetings online and have become accustomed to seeing our colleagues’ kids, dogs and significant others passing through our meetings.

This year has tested our ability to adapt and we have had to make a serious shift in the way we deliver on our commitments to our entrepreneurs, partners and programmes.

We are delighted to announce the finalists in our 2020 Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards. The innovations this year include solutions for taxi operators, agribusiness crowdfunding, medical aid cover and three solutions to assist the hearing impaired.

We have been inspired by our resilient entrepreneurs who have put their shoulders to the wheel and come up with creative ways to expand their service offerings and keep their doors open. Read some of our entrepreneur stories below, on how they managed to change their production lines and keep their employees working under difficult circumstances.

We are also happy to share with you our latest impact report, SAB Foundation Impact Report. Some of our key highlights include over 5 800 new jobs created, 95% of the businesses we support are still operational and a 137% increase in turnover for our entrepreneurs.

As we close out the year we would like to sincerely thank our entrepreneurs, trustees, colleagues and suppliers for all of your continued support and commitment over the past year.

We’re looking forward to welcoming 2021 and the new opportunities and challenges that it will bring.

We wish you all a wonderful festive season.

Yours in innovation

Bridgit Evans and the SAB Foundation team

SOCIAL INNOVATION AWARDS AND DISABILITY EMPOWERMENT AWARDS 2020 FINALISTS

We’re pleased to announce the finalists in our 2020 Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards.

The final winners, including six finalists in the fifth annual Disability Empowerment Awards, will be announced at our official awards ceremony on 09 February 2021.

To find out more about the awards and the finalists, please visit 2020 Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards Finalists.

COVID-19 RELIEF FUND

We recognised that our SMEs would face huge pressures as a result of the disruptions caused by the pandemic and to help alleviate the strain, we made R20 million in Relief Funding available to past and present beneficiaries of our programmes. The aim of the funding was to help as many businesses as possible make it through this challenging time.

We were so impressed by so many of the entrepreneurs in our pipeline that showed great innovation and adaptability, pivoting their businesses and their offerings, and often assisting others and the communities within which they operate.

We’d like to share some of their work with you and hope that their determination and commitment is an inspiration to you

Clothes to Good recycles used and new clothing to create employment and develop skills training for women with disabled children and adult women with disabilities. Throughout the pandemic they sustained the employment of a full team to recycle 18 tonnes of clothes and revive 108 microbusinesses. Over and above this, the incredible team also ran a feeding programme over lockdown, reaching many vulnerable people including the homeless, attendees at an Early Childhood Development centre and families with members with disabilities.

The Denis Hurley Centre’s Street Lit programme enables homeless people to make a living by selling quality second-hand books. The funding from the SAB Foundation enabled the organisation to innovate over lockdown, despite it being challenging to find venues to sell stock. They expanded their network to find new venues and developed a social media presence which allowed them to increase online book sales.

Oasis Association employs intellectually disabled individuals, pairing them with companion workers to provide support. Trading was halted during the lockdown period, but COVID-19 relief funding from the SAB Foundation provided recovery assistance to keep people employed and support an onsite feeding scheme. The organisation also purchased cleaning materials, PPE, hygiene products and deep cleaning services for its sites.

"As a previous winner of one of the Social Innovation grants and a recipient in the COVID-19 relief grant, we are incredibly grateful to the SAB Foundation for this assistance. We were able to retain two of our junior technicians and certain key customers through lockdown due to that support"
Social Innovation Award winner

SAB Foundation - What a unique year 2020 has been!

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