idea > logic > magic

ATIO Corporation’s ongoing commitment to their Corporate Social Responsibility Program saw them recently becoming involved with a Soweto high school. While hosting a staff function last year, Adri Kilian, ATIO Corporation’s Marketing Director, was impressed by the enthusiasm and passion of the children from Beyers Naude High School. Intrigued by the energy of the learners who were singing and dancing as part of the event’s entertainment, she approached the principal of the school to find out more about them.

‘We decided to become involved in a way that we felt we could add sustainable value to the school,’ she says, adding: ‘After examining different options and requirements, we discovered a real need for a computer training room at the school in order to enable them to be competitive in providing crucial skills development for the market place.’

ATIO Corporation contracted Xylocom, an IT company, to jointly undertake the implementation of the project. ‘Not wanting to simply donate equipment to the school and walk away, we decided to initially train three of the top teachers, who would be able to go on to train the 850 learners. Those in grades 8 – 12 would also be able to attend this training extramurally, thereby minimising the impact on their normal studies.

‘The course training is based on an internationally recognised self-help program and would take a year to complete. We customised this to fit the school’s requirements,’ says Adri.

ATIO Corporation’s  longer term plan is to build on this initiative while investigating other specific needs such as generic life-skills and post-matric training, enabling the learners to access more opportunities than they currently have.

‘It was also critical to obtain buy-in from the whole school – Principal, faculty and learners in order for this project to be a success. We needed to be able to communicate that respecting the equipment and its security within the school required that the learners effectively took ownership of the notion, and responsibility for ensuring the equipment is properly looked after,’ she adds.

In an interesting twist, ATIO Corporation decided to use this year’s corporate gift budget to partly fund this initiative. Atio commissioned the school’s art teacher and learners to paint approximately 500 Christmas cards to send to clients as an alternative to the gifts. ‘We felt that this would also involve our clients in contributing toward an investment in the future of South Africa,’ says Adri, explaining the motivation behind this.

‘This initiative fits in with ATIO Corporation’s decision to focus specifically on core benefactors,’ says Adri and explains: ‘Being able to currently concentrate on Beyers Naude High School and CANSA, enables ATIO Corporation to build sustainable relationships, and allows us to effectively partner with them, while identifying their needs and growing together.’

She concludes by saying: ‘It’s important to us that this initiative is in line with government’s objectives for education and skills transfer, and we’re proud to be helping to build intellectual capital for the future of this country.’