TEAM BUILDING LENDS A HAND TO SUNSHINE CENTRES IN TOWNSHIPS

Elephants in Main Street, a team building company based in Northcliff, together with a large corporate client held a social responsibility team building event on Saturday 19 May 2007 at the Sunshine Centre’s in both Soweto and Eldorado.

The brief from the client was clear, they wanted to use a portion of their conferencing budget to assist and improve the conditions of a worthwhile cause. Not only would they be donating money, but as importantly, the time, energy and care of its staff.

Elephants in Main Street selected the Sunshine Centre’s as a very deserving cause. The Sunshine Centre’s are schools that cater for children who are physically, mentally and financially impaired.
After a site inspection at both the Soweto and Eldorado schools, the smiling, friendly faces of the children and the staff  at the Sunshine Centre’s as well as the obviously dilapidated facilities, made this oranisation the perfect beneficiary for the project.

The list of tasks that would be tackled on the day was ambitious, even for the delegates that arrived. They had 8 hours to do the following;
Assemble, paint and install shelving into the classrooms, sew pictures onto the new towels purchased and put in towel hooks, paint the classroom doors, upgrade the sandpits, paint existing palisade fencing and install new palisade fencing, install an irrigation system, plant a large scale vegetable patch, build a compost heap, lay tarmac and design and paint a road safety project, install handrails in the corridors, sand and paint jungle gyms, install and paint murals onto rubber floor mats, lay cement paths, plant a play ground of instant lawn and decorate the bathrooms and classrooms with wall murals.

The delegates arrived energetic and ready to make a difference. Tasks were assigned to various teams and the teams were briefed on what needed to be done. The 8 hours that followed were filled with sweat, dust, laughter and total focus on the tasks on hand.

The result – a massively successful upgrading of the two Sunshine Centre’s and 200 very dirty and totally exhausted yet exhilarated delegates. The outcome – children whose lives have been enhanced by far better facilities and a company whose staff spent the day bonding and achieving a common goal.

Elephants in Main Street are thrilled to have, yet again, delivered a fantastic CSI project for one of its clients as well as for a worthwhile charity. We encourage all corporates to consider including a social responsibility element into their team building. We believe that the next great civilization will come from Africa and together we can make a difference.

For further information please contact Melissa Blades, PR Director of Elephants in Main Street on 011 476 7300 or Melissa@elephants.co.za