Blue Label Telecoms Integrated Annual Report 2019

72 Blue Label integrated annual report 2019 Socio-economic and community development continued ICT REFURBISHMENT PROJECT The ICT refurbishment and skills development project was a partnership between Blue Label and Afrika Tikkun. Afrika Tikkun is a non-profit organisation serving over 12 000 beneficiaries and is dedicated to the reduction of youth unemployment in South Africa by tackling the socio-economic drivers that make it difficult for young people to access the economy. Afrika Tikkun FOCUS AREAS The programme focuses on young people from previously disadvantaged communities between the ages of 7 and 18 years. It aims to provide young people with ICT skills exposure such as introduction to the world of computers, introduction to computer programming, coding, website design and the internet of things. The ICT programme will provide the opportunity for young people to be able to use the internet to conduct research for their school assignments and to improve their typing skills, to access previous question papers, do research for their careers and apply for bursaries to further their learning. BLUE LABEL ALEXANDRA YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME The Alexandra Cricket Development Programme is a life skills programme powered by a partnership between Blue Label Telecoms and the Cricket Company. The programme takes place during school hours as a component of their Life Orientation sessions. It utilises the game of cricket to equip children with valuable tools to assist them with everyday life. The programme is run in 12 primary schools in Alexandra, and reaches approximately 10 000 children per year. During the course of the year the 15 students that demonstrate exceptional character and high potential in cricket are selected to form part of the Alex XI cricket team. The team plays in the Montrose night series where they interact and compete against Gauteng’s top cricketing schools. This season was the team’s most successful season in the competition, with the Alex XI finishing runners up. In line with our focus to bridge the digital divide in the underprivileged communities, a reading programme was piloted with the use of tablets and the Edu reader app. The pilot was carried out at three of the 12 schools over a three-week period and approximately 1 000 children participated. The programme was a finalist at the 2018 Sport Industry Awards in the ‘Development Programme of the Year’ category where it competed against the likes of Engen’s Youth Development Programme. FOCUS AREAS