60
Linde Annual 2010
4. Corporate Responsibility
“We give disadvantaged children a chance.” Tintswalo Sono’s responsibilities at Afrox, member of The Linde Group, include managing voluntary social activities by employees. Here she explains the importance of these efforts – particularly for the African continent. Afrox participates in numerous social projects in South Africa and other African countries. What is the thinking behind this engagement? ↳ As a company, we are aware that the places where we do business are also home to local communities and we influence those communities through our activities. For Afrox to be successful, the communities need to be economically and socially strong. We also want to make some small contribution to African development as a whole. So what do you focus on here? ↳ We focus in particular on education and training, as that is the only real way to break the poverty cycle. Each year, we make donations amounting to one percent of our net profit after tax (NPAT). In this field, they go towards helping underprivileged pupils with maths and science. As a leading supplier of gases and welding equipment, we also support welding schools. Plus we provide not-for-profit organisations with welding equipment, industrial gases and liquid petroleum gas (LPG).
4
And you also support voluntary work by your employees? ↳ Yes, through our staff-driven Community Involvement Programme (CIP). Here, our employees make active voluntary contributions to projects in their professional or private capacities. So they invest their time and knowledge to support various community institutions, concentrating on orphanages and care centres for abused, abandoned and disabled children. →