The business sector is supposed to play a critical role in bettering the lives of people in the community. As much as they can have challenges of their own they tend to be better placed to extend a helping hand to the less privileged. Corporate social responsibility is a huge aspect of what distinguishes some businesses these days. Zimbabwe is currently going through a multiplicity of challenges which the government seems not keen on addressing. Local businesses can contribute something towards easing the pain most people are going through due to the prevailing challenges. It doesn’t necessarily have to be huge; anything no matter how seemingly small it may be can go a long way. Herein I’m discussing 6 ways in which businesses can give back to the community.
Tree Planting
Right now the country is locked in a cycle of incessant load shedding. Though the situation has slightly improved in most parts of the country the problem still persists. Since people are finding gas and electricity both scarce and expensive they have resorted to the use of firewood. Unfortunately, the demand for firewood has surged to a point where deforestation is now rampant in most parts of the country. It’s apparent that for as long as power shortages continue the unchecked chopping down of trees will also continue. Thus it’s important that planting trees becomes a regular exercise across the country. Businesses can assist in this regard by embarking on tree-planting drives or purchasing and disbursing tree seedlings. This will greatly help in curtailing deforestation by endeavouring to replace the chopped trees.
School Supplies
Due to a lot of economic instability most parents or guardians can’t afford to send their children to school. Some no longer manage to adequately provide all that’s needed for their children’s school supplies. This actually spans from early childhood development to the tertiary level. Business can come to the rescue of these underprivileged children. For instance, you can identify a school and find out if there are children experiencing difficult challenges regarding their school supplies. Then you can chip in to provide whatever you can to assist them. School supplies can be uniforms, stationery and even food amongst other basic essentials.
Sanitary Pad Drives
Most families can’t afford sanitary wear for the girls due to financial challenges. As a business, you can target communities, schools, churches and so on. The idea is to identify a grouping that makes it easy to understand the dynamics of the problem and to have a framework to disburse the pads. To even make it more impactful you can put your business at the forefront of putting together sanitary pads and you rally others to join in. Ultimately you’ll have a lot of sanitary pads to distribute. You can specifically choose to target rural communities since they tend to be the hardest hit especially at times like these.
Water Supply
Water challenges are rocking most communities across the country. The factors leading to that are varied but let’s not dwell much on that. Rather let’s look at how as a business you can help alleviate water shortages. You can identify a community or maybe a school and assist in the drilling of a borehole. Some communities even have water sources such as boreholes that just need to be repaired or refurbished. You can assist in ensuring people manage to get access to safe and clean water. This is very crucial to health-related issues such as hygiene and sanitation.
Scholarships
There are many talented students that are failing to pursue or further their studies due to lack of finances. We have seen this being a serious problem locally with numerous cases always coming to the fore when academic results come out. Businesses can help by taking up the responsibility of paying school fees for some of these brilliant students. On social media, we’ve seen cases of students with sterling O’Level or A’Level results but not having the resources to go further. It would be very helpful if businesses can issue out scholarships to deserving students.
Computer Literacy
The need for everyone to be computer literate can’t be overemphasized anymore nowadays. From children to adults it’s no longer optional but rather mandatory. The ways in which businesses can help in this regard are so many. The easiest and relatively cheapest way a business can assist is by purchasing a computer (desktop or laptop) and donate to schools or any strategic institution for the sole purpose of computer training. When I was much younger I have an uncle of mine who provided computer training lessons with his two desktops. I’m a product of his initiative yet he was just doing it alone and part-time using a class at my primary school. If he could do it then surely businesses can do even more no matter how small it might seem to them.
My clarion call is for businesses to seriously consider how they can help in trying times like these days. There are lots of benefits that can accrue to the business that sets out to assist those in need. All in all, no benefit will ever exceed the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made a positive difference in someone life.
