"While all the companies in the Group are furiously busy on various projects, we all knew that we could not let Mandela Day come and go without honouring Madiba by doing our 67 minutes," says Lynn Madeley, CEO of Havas Southern Africa. "Two of our wonderful caring employees came to us with a great idea, which immediately got the entire backing of the Group".
Nakita Bolus, TV producer at Havas Worldwide Johannesburg and Lisa Bayliss, senior copywriter at Havas Worldwide Digital, as well as Fiona O'Connor, creative director at Havas Worldwide Johannesburg, proposed the idea of providing lunch parcels to the children at the Lesedi Child Care Centre.
Says Nakita, "Lesedi Child Care Centre provides the care and attention children need after school, when their parents are often not able to provide them with this due to work commitments. Lesedi provides a place of safety, where children of all ages are given the attention and support to complete their homework and further their studies. We felt that the support Lesedi provides is vitally important to the future of these children, and we wanted to help them."
"While the dedicated support staff of Lesedi Child Care Centre provide them with care and attention," continues Lisa, "we wanted to make sure that the children are well fed this Mandela Day, which is why we provided them with lunch parcels containing sandwiches, juices, fruit, with chips and a chocolate for good measure."
The goodwill was incredibly infectious - so much so that a few of the Havas clients who experienced the excitement also got involved. Both Volvo and Pernod Ricard provided colouring books and extra goodies for the parcels.
States Lynn, "We at Havas live by three principles; care, creativity and collaboration. We are delighted that two of our staff felt so inspired to bring care to the children of Lesedi, and that their excitement inspired everyone in here to chip in."
"We are proud that people like Nakita, Lisa and Fiona are part of our team and we are even more happy to be able to provide the children of Lesedi with food while simultaneously honouring the legacy of Nelson Mandela," concludes Lynn.
