5 minute read
Air Liquide Southern Africa Makes A Meaningful Difference
By Laressa Tharvin, HR Director Southern Africa and Africa Services
Air Liquide’s ambition is to be a leader in its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) is a key part of our human resources strategy and is embedded in all dimensions of our values, from safety to growth opportunities. I&D enables us to leverage our differences, and contribute to creating sustainable and innovative solutions to society’s major challenges.
Air Liquide Southern Africa is working to create a more inclusive workplace for women, by providing training and support to help them develop their careers. These include events, learning & development offerings, mentoring, networks and communities for different interest groups such as women careers and disabled employees among others.
In 2020, we launched in partnership with Wits Business School our Women in Leadership programme, inspiring Air Liquide women across different entities with commercial knowledge and business tools. In June 2023, we launched The Leaders of Tomorrow Programme featuring dynamic young aspiring middle managers. The programme is a transformative programme designed to unlock the leadership potential of our young professionals through mentoring, distance learning, group work and personal development.
Corporate Social Investment
We are committed to achieving commercial success in ways that honour ethical values, and respect for people and all our stakeholders. For Air Liquide, CSI means using its resources and expertise to make a positive impact on the communities where we operate. Our CSI Strategy is focused mainly on three key areas:
Education and training: We are committed to supporting education and training programmes that help people develop the skills they need to succeed in the workforce
Healthcare: Air Liquide provides access to oxygen and healthcare in underserved communities
Environment: Air Liquide works to reduce its environmental impact and to help its customers decarbonise their operations
Air Liquide (Pty) Ltd
In collaboration with Valued Citizen Initiative (VCI), Air Liquide rolled out the iNSPIRE Programme to 50 girl learners from Eden Ridge High School in Katlehong. Working in close collaboration and upon instruction from the Department of Basic Education.
Blossom: The mission is to improve education about menstruation and provide access to sanitary pads is vital in addressing a significant issue faced by many girls and women in South Africa. The partnership with the Air Liquide Spirit of Ubuntu Committee to support local schools is commendable and can make a meaningful impact on the lives of young girls in township communities. The locally designed machines producing up to 50 pads a minute are a practical solution to enhance access to sanitary products.
This initiative is a positive step towards addressing both financial and knowledge barriers related to menstruation in the region. MyWalk Foundation a non-profit organisation, in partnership with Air Liquide, that is supported by Netcare and Adcock Ingram Critical Care, recycles uncontaminated Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) drip bags, oxygen masks and associated tubing to manufacture durable and fully recyclable school shoes that are then laced up, packaged with love, and distributed as a gift of dignity to children in the lower LSM schools at no cost to the children and the school.
The My Walk partnership is an example of embracing a circular economy. It shows how a green solution can fulfil a material need for a business while simultaneously benefitting society – in this case by supporting education, job creation and enterprise development. The partnership further demonstrates the meaningful and wider impact that an innovative approach to solving business challenges can have.
VitalAire
In 2023, VitalAire contributed to The Living Hope Trust with the rental of five stationary oxygen concentrators to the healthcare centre facility. The healthcare facility provides physical rehabilitation, palliative care, recuperation following hospitalisation and respite care for the community. Living Hope undertakes community development through educational, social, income generation, and health related programmes; and plays a vital role in the prevention, care and treatment of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses.
Air Liquide Healthcare (Pty) Ltd
The associations (NGOs) we partnered with are Mine is Education and Education is Our Future. Our joint mission is to help improve the literacy and numeracy skills of young children in South Africa. To this extent, and in partnership with the above NGO’s, to date we have donated mobile science kits, mathematics kits and library books to the selected schools. Beyond the donations, we visit the schools to monitor the progress of the learners and usage of the materials in the classrooms.
The projects to date are:
Mine is Education NGO: One of the selected schools is a school for learners with special needs. We customised the kits to meet their special needs. A Subject Specialist is assigned to visit the schools quarterly and spend the day in the classroom to attend to the teachers and learners’ needs. Videos of all the syllabus experiments have been created (to address the special needs) to be used by the teachers and learners in the classrooms.
Education is Our Future NGO: Mobile libraries (300 books) in the foundation phase were delivered and the Kibooks online library platform was also implemented. The team visits the schools monthly. Activities and projects were shared with the schools for the learners to participate in on a monthly basis. Prize giving was held at the end of 2022 for top learners in the book reviews competition. One of the learners authored her own book without instruction, just inspired by the launched literature project.
