Since 2013, the Corporate Social Responsibility programme of ABC Banking Corporation Ltd is implemented under the aegis of the Sir Jean Etienne Moilin Ah-Chuen Foundation (referred to as “ABC Foundation”), ABC Group’s entity for all social and philanthropic projects. Named after the founder of ABC Group, the Foundation is a non-profit entity that regroups funds allocated for CSR projects of all companies of the Group under one common programme.
Since the establishment of the ABC Foundation, four areas of intervention were identified, namely education, health & sports, community empowerment and environment. The Foundation disbursed over Rs 2.2 million during year 2015-16, which was used to provide support to NGOs and the community. As for previous years, the implementation of the CSR programme has been supported by the involvement of ABC staff through the Staff Welfare Committees.
Sports encourage social integration and help the development of values that are essential to society. In this context, the Foundation offered its support to the Trust Fund For Excellence in Sports and to Club Maurice for its participation in the Indian Ocean Island Games 2015, in a bid to support high level Mauritian athletes.
For the third consecutive year, the Foundation, committed to the welfare of employees of the Group has organised a Health Week in June 2016. The Health Week was organised to promote a healthy lifestyle among the employees. Staff benefitted from breast cancer screening, first aid trainings, talks on nutrition and free gym sessions. The Health Week was organised in collaboration with the Staff Welfare Committees, Breast Cancer Care, Red Cross, Blood Donors Association and the Komiko Troupe.
Education is one of the fundamental factors of social and economic integration. During the past year, the Foundation, through its Graduate Scholarship Scheme, has offered 16 scholarships to youngsters from deprived background to help them pursue their studies at the University of Mauritius, University of Technology and Université des Mascareignes.
Recognising the importance of the vocational and technical education in skills development and social integration, scholarships were also granted to students attending the Collège Technique St Gabriel.
The participation of the Company in the empowerment and social development of local communities is one of the priorities of the Foundation.
Under this area of intervention, the Foundation sponsored the Love Bridge Project, a community and humanitarian programme that has for main objective poverty alleviation through empowerment and support of vulnerable families.
Over the past year, the Foundation also provided support to Atelier Mo’Zar, a music school that aims to help children fight against poverty and exclusion by developing their talent for music, and to Mouvement pour le Progrès de Roches Bois, an NGO that caters for school drop-outs, amongst others.
ABC Group is aware of its environmental impact as a consequence of its economic activities and has at the outset of the Foundation chosen the protection of the environment as one of its priorities. This year again, the Foundation has partnered with the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation for a reforestation project. For the coming year, the Foundation’s actions will be mainly centered around the Scholarship Scheme and Community Empowerment by encouraging employees’ engagement in the CSR endeavours.