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Since its inception, Southern Hemisphere has been guided by a keen sense of social responsibility. As part of our committments, we have developed four components:
1. Internship Programme A six month programme, guided to support young practioners/academics, from South Africa or from Southern countries, who are keen to gain valuable experience in the development sector. 2. Directors and Senior Consultants Social Responsibility In 2001 we launched another component to our social responsibilty portfolio, namely that of mandatory voluntary work for both directors. The vision behind the voluntary work component is that each director commits to performing free consultant services to any community, organisation, individual, government agency or NPO over a specified length of time, agreed upon by both parties. 3. Sponsorships An annual sponsorship is awarded to fund worthy and deserving projects or developmental ventures. Our sponsorhsips can be monetary in value, or non-monetary - depending on the needs of the organisation. 4. Affirmative Procurement Policy Hiring or Sub-contracting previously disadvantaged individuals/organisations (PDI/Os) - As part of our mission, Southern Hemisphere aims at all times to hire, subcontract or benefit people from diasdvantaged or underprivileged backgrounds or communities, as our project partners, fieldworkers, researchers or support staff. This policy is to be applied when doing work in South Africa or internationally. |
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Interns obtain valuable work experience
To date, Southern Hemisphere has been inundated with applications for internship positions. Thus far, three South African postgraduate students and five international graduates have successfully completed their 6 month terms. Messages from past interns: "I want to thank Southern Hemisphere for accommodating me in a nice and conducive environment. It's been a real pleasure for me to receive such good training and exposure to the world of work. Now I know what to expect from outside and inside the working environment - because of you!" Andrew Mkhontswana,B(Public Admin) "Southern Hemisphere supported me with guidance and resources, and with the knowledge I had gained from my initial project, I felt equipped to design workshops for youth that fit into the South African context. Cheryl Schoenberg, MA in Peace and Development Studies. |
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Directors and Senior Consultants Social Responsibility
Foundation of the Former Governor of Puerto Rico: Dr Daniel Nina, the director of SHC participated as a co-facilitator in a two-days workshop for the Foundation of the Former Governor of Puerto Rico, Sila M. Calderon in Puerto Rico. The aim of the workshop was to assist leaders from the poor communities in establishing a national organisation to facilitate in transforming the poor condition experience by most people. Sila M. Calderon is well known in Puerto Rico for leading the national campaign to eradicate poverty during his tenure 2001-2004. This campaign at the time was commonly known as Comunidades Especiales (special communities) project, which was aimed at transforming the life of almost 50% of the national population (total population 3.8 million) who live under poverty line according to the US Federal Government Census. During this year's workshop Daniel participated as a volunteer co-facilitator in which he lead the Legal aspects of the workshop. The aim of the legal task was to develop the legal rules and company by-laws. Dr. Nina participated in this process as part of his social responsibilities duties within Southern Hemisphere Consultants company policies. Gold (Generation of Leaders Developed) Peer Education Project: Dena Lomofsky (Managing director) and Nana Davies (Senior Consultant) are the external monitoring and evaluation consultants for Gold Peer Education. They have done and will continue to do a portion of the work pro-bono or at reduced rates until the organisation is firmly on its feet. We firmly believe in their model and in the excellent and professional way that they are implementing, piloting and testing their monitoring and evaluation systems, and we want to see this programme standing on strong foundations. This is our commitment. National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Petty Offenders (NICRO): NICRO is the national non-profit organisation that aims that preventing crimes and promoting a safer South Africa. Wilma Wessels (Human Resources and Projects’ Officer) and Hannah Muthoni (Projects’ Officer and Researcher) will be working as volunteer facilitators for the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Petty Offenders (NICRO). They will specifically work on the Youth Empowerment Scheme project which is a life-skills training programme that usually runs for six to eight sessions and assists the youth that have been involved in petty crimes, to think over and take charge of their lives and the decisions they make. It deters the young people from being caught up in crime or from “going off the rails". Parents or guardians are invited to participate and are encouraged to support the progress of the participants. |
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Champion Youth Choir Wins Again!
In November 2000, Southern Hemisphere awarded a sponsorhsip to the Heavenly Voices Choir that allowed them to participate in the annual Telkom/Old Mutual National Choir Champoinships held in Cape Town on 2/3 December 2000. Heavenly Voices is a vibrant and promising youth choir from the Western Cape, comprised of 60 aspirant musicians and is conducted by Nolufefe Mtshabe. The sponsorship not only enabled Heavenly Voices to enter the competition, but also enabled them to defend their championship title in magnificent style, confidently singing their way to victory yet again.
To date, Southern Hemisphere has continued to use proven skills of its staff to ensure excellence delivery of services to our clients. In ensuring this, we have gone an extra mile to form lasting project partnership with many dynamic and young researchers countrywide, but also with companies such as Roots Research, the first and only black-owned market research company in Cape Town, and MMA Architects who designed the South African Embassy in Berlin and currently working on one in Ethiopia for 2010. We also uphold our policy of hiring and sub-contracting to Previously Disadvantaged Individuals (PDIs).