This past month of October UPS employees around the world joined with their friends and families to take part in volunteer projects in local communities to take part in what they named Global Volunteer Month.

UPS volunteers help with the upliftment of the Mpumulelo Daycare Centre in Windmill Park, Boksburg, South Africa on Saturday 8 October 2011.

Todays guest post is put together by Ronna Branch. This Global Volunteer Month UPS Johannesburg employees went out for several days to paint and repair the Mpumelelo Day Care Centre. UPS employee Sherrill Horne explains her team’s decision to volunteer with Mpumelelo Day Care Center, supporting HIV/AIDS affected children. According to UNICEF in 2009, over 14.9 million children had lost one or both parents due to AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. For this UPS team, one visit solidified their commitment to helping this center make a difference in the lives of children. But, their work ultimately makes a difference in the lives of these UPS employees….  

In the beginning of 2010 my manager Belinda Gault received a request to meet Maria Gaba.  She had a day care centre and could use a little help. So, I made an appointment with our contact Joan. Belinda and I set of to meet the ladies at a coffee shop close to the office.

We met Silvia, Joan and Maria Gaba that day not knowing that these three ladies would become such a big part of our lives in the future. We actually had been visiting a number of charity organizations as we where looking for new projects to support and were getting a bit desponded as the organizations we visited had a number of corporate supporters and UPS would just be one of many. Belinda and I have always felt that when we work with a charity we want to see what difference we as UPS have made.

Wow, was my reaction when I met Maria.  She started telling us her life story and how she had fought to help open the local primary and then high school in the informal settlement she lived.  She explained that she only has a second grade education, as her father did not believe a girl needed an education. She was sexually and physically abused most of her life, yet she is the most positive person I have met in a very long time. Belinda and I were stunned.

UPS volunteers at the Mpumulelo Daycare Centr

Then we went to the visit the Mpumelelo Day Care and multi purpose centre. The drive seemed to take forever as Belinda and I had never been in the area before. I can’t properly express the feelings I had when I got out of the car at the centre and looked around me, tin shacks for class rooms, no bathrooms, one tap for water and no electricity. The kitchen was also a tin shack with a tiny gas stove. On this gas stove they cooked meals for 70 children a day. Most of the veggies they grow in their own garden on the property and the rest of the food came from donations – but they don’t have a freezer, so the food gets eaten the same day, and distributed to the local community as it will not keep.

Belinda and I did not even need to discuss it, the decision was made.

Mpumelelo would be the UPS Johannesburg charity for the next 3 years…

Every time I go to Mpumelelo and I look around I remember that first day, and the improvement is honestly unbelievable. Maria Gaba often says that she needs to pinch herself to make sure she is not dreaming…