ABOUT GLACIER BY SANLAM

Why we care

I am, because you are.

Ubuntu is a Zulu word meaning, “I am, because you are”. In fact, the word is just part of the Zulu phrase, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”, which literally means that a person is a person through other people. The phrase speaks to our interconnectedness as human beings.

At Glacier, Ubuntu is one of the six values to which we subscribe as a business and that underpins our relationships with our employees, our clients and the broader community. We have expanded our interpretation of Ubuntu to include the interconnectedness of humans as well as our relationship with the environment.

Glacier’s community support is broadened annually with a range of initiatives supporting various organisations. These include those that care for and protect people in need; who assist in poverty alleviation; and those that relieve the suffering of animals.

Why we care online

Glacier We Care was created early in COVID lockdown as an online response to people in need and animals who were suffering or abandoned during this extraordinary time.

The pandemic has had an economic effect on most South Africans, and the numbers of homeless people and animals have increased significantly in South Africa since 2020. Post-COVID, the challenges are not going away, and there are many community organisations who need our help.

Glacier We Care aims to shed a spotlight on various organisations doing incredible work in our communities, to ease the suffering of people and animals in need. It is our intention to change the charities periodically, so that as many organisations as possible can benefit from this initiative.

How you can help

If we all join our efforts, we can make a big difference in many organisations across South Africa, and we can touch the lives of more people and animals in need.

From time to time, we will showcase new organisations to support and donate to.

Door of Hope

Door of Hope, literally, receives abandoned children on their doorstep – or more accurately, in a hole in their wall. Part of their mission is to save abandoned children and bring them home. Door of Hope exists to give abandoned children hope and a future.

Abandonment of infants in South Africa, unfortunately is a common occurrence. Many of these children are left to die, or simply abandoned in dustbins, on open fields, in public toilets or on train tracks. In 1999, the Berea Baptist Mission Church, under the leadership of Pastor Cheryl Allen, decided to do something about this growing problem. They created a hole in their wall and a ‘Baby Box’ was installed, allowing for mothers to leave their babies at any time of the day or night for the church to take care of them.

Hannah’s Place of Safety

Children are placed in Hannah’s Place of Safety via the Department of Social Development. The dedicated staff are committed to every child that is placed in their care, ensuring that:

• children are welcomed and treated as a member of the family;
• children are provided with medical and emotional support to help them heal physically, emotionally and spiritually;
• children feel safe and secure by ensuring that the home is warm and open;
• children are helped to learn to trust adults;
  the children’s confidence is restored;
• they have the space to ‘just be a child’; and
• they are prepared for their “forever” home.

Founders, Dion and Janine Fabe, started their journey with Hannah’s Place of Safety in 2016, after they volunteered at a place of safety and later fostered and adopted their daughter, Hannah.

Phoenix Animal Care and Treatment

PACT was established in March 2012 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing care and medical treatment for animals in the Phoenix area, which is approximately 25 kilometres northwest of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

If an animal is found to be abused, neglected, abandoned or a stray, PACT will remove the animal from those circumstances. The dedicated staff then administer medical treatment or sterilisation where needed. If homing or re-homing is required, PACT enlists the help of its national network of animal organisations in South Africa. They will do whatever is humanly possible to ensure that animals have a happy, forever home.

Glacier We Care aims to assist PACT in its commitment to:

• raise funds to sterilise homeless animals in Phoenix;
• educate the community on responsible animal care;
• find foster or forever homes for stray babies wherever possible;
• provide medical treatment to strays, where needed; and
• feed homeless animals e.g., feral colonies.

Villa of Hope

The Villa of Hope Children’s Home is a non-profit organisation registered with the Department of Social Development as a Child and Youth Care Centre. The organisation focuses on the provision of superior care to those children who have been orphaned or require alternative care due to abuse, neglect and abandonment. The services also extend to children affected or infected by HIV and AIDS or other illnesses.

The Villa of Hope provides residential accommodation for children who have been placed by organisations such as Johannesburg Child Welfare, Childline, the Child Protection Unit, the South African Police Services and the Department of Social Development.

Whilst in the care of the Villa of Hope, the health, safety, emotional, psychological, educational, spiritual and physical needs of children are catered to in a loving environment. The Villa of Hope has 25 houses which include administration offices; early childhood development centres; learning centres, libraries and social services offices. These facilities require resources, maintenance and funds to continue to offer services to children who have nowhere else to go.