Ford Motor Company of South Africa (Pty) LTD

Ford’s donation programme supports skills development and training at technical high schools and TVET colleges across South Africa. Last year, Ford donated a total of 101 engines, 700 turbo chargers and 1778 fuel pumps to various institutions across South Africa that will be used for training purposes. The complete value of these donations amounts to R10-million.

Ford SA partnered with the Thembekile Mandela Foundation, an NPO, and Veldskoen South Africa, a footwear manufacturing company to celebrate Mandela Day. Ford’s donation of R494 488 was used in the manufacturing of school shoes and purchasing of school bags for learners at the Clarkebury Agricultural School in the Eastern Cape.

“We applaud the Thembekile Mandela Foundation for embodying and continuing Madiba’s selfless commitment to helping others and focusing on education as the key to building a brighter future for the people of South Africa,” says Esther Buthelezi, Transformation and Government Affairs Executive Director of Ford Motor Company. “This project exemplifies our Ford+ values of caring for each other and developing great talent that will take us into the future.”

This event presents a platform for South African students to showcase their entrepreneurial projects that are making an impact on the Global Goals in their respective communities. Ford SA is one of the gold partners of Enactus South Africa and has supported the programme for many years. Every year Ford Motor Company Fund and Ford South Africa support Enactus through the annual Ford College Community Challenge (C3), providing grants of $5 000 to each of the four local projects to implement their creative community upliftment initiatives.

In addition to the annual Ford C3 grants, Ford funded R953 000 to support the Central University of Technology student’s travel to the Enactus world cup in Puerto Rico, where they represented South Africa.

The Science2Go initiative is run by the Centre for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education Trust (CASME) in collaboration with founding project partner Mahle Behr South Africa. Ford Motor Company Fund, the philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Company, is supporting the project for a period of three years, with an initial grant of R1.4-million in 2022. Additionally, Ford South Africa donated a locally built Ford Ranger pick-up that is being used as the mobile science laboratory and resource centre.

“Science2Go is an initiative by CASME and Mahle Behr to bridge the gaps in science teaching and learning in public schools,” says Henre Benson, director of CASME. “The Science2Go Mobile Resource Centre is a cost-effective solution to address the lack of access to scientific educational resources in rural and peri-urban public schools that either lack the funds to provide adequate laboratory equipment or do not have any laboratories at all. It not only brings much-needed resources, but also experienced facilitators to build teachers' capacity and skills.”

Ford has a long-standing affiliation with Rally to Read that extends over 23 years. A donation of R1.36 million by Ford SA was aimed at improving literacy and education in underprivileged communities. The Read Educational Trust partnership with Ford is an ongoing initiative which provides teacher training and school resources to improve literacy - from the foundation phase to the intermediate and senior phases of the schools.