SKF – The Multi-National That Cares


Swedish multi-national SKF, a world leading knowledge engineering solutions provider, celebrates 100 years of engineering excellence in 2007 and a tradition of caring for the well-being of employees and the community.

When Sven Wingquist founded SKF in 1907, he set an example that the company has followed through the decades, recognising and appreciating the importance of people, employees and the community. Even in those early years, when employees were regarded as numbers only, Wingquist recognised and rewarded loyalty and the company played a major role in assisting the community during the lean and difficult years of the First World War.

The SKF Group's global vision is to play a significant role in sustainable social responsibility and the company remains active in local communities internationally. SKF South Africa being no exception, has embarked on a number of social responsibility projects to care for communities affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic.

The local company's community awareness and compassion for those in need are demonstrated by a gift of R400 000.00 made to the St Francis Nursery School, towards the end of 2006. The East Rand-based St Francis Care Centre is staffed by a trained and dedicated team to care for children infected and affected by HIV/Aids. As subsidies for HIV/Aids care centres are dwindling country wide, facilities like these are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. SKF has also "adopted" the Nursery School section of the Care Centre and this gift will go a long way in sustaining the good work done by St Francis.

Sharing in the vision of caring for the well-being and education of disadvantaged children, St Andrews Presbyterian church in Benoni and St Mark's church in Daveyton, formed a partnership with SKF - a joint initiative that resulted in the official opening of LEGAE (meaning "home") for children in need, which was officially opened in Daveyton on the East Rand at the end of March 2007.

SKF met the challenge of allocating funds to projects where the positive effect could be monitored and where the company could partake in the financial management. St Andrews, on the other hand, provides some financial support, management and people resources for the projects, but long term funding could cause serious financial strain to the church, hence the partnership, with SKF providing the bulk of the financial support and some volunteer services from employees. Contributions from St Andrews include financial, management, training and other volunteer services.

Another "project in progress" is the sponsoring of a local team to compete in the Gothia Cup, an international soccer tournament that takes place in Sweden. SKF, assisted by South Africa's Star Schools, have organised the local football tournament ‘Meet the World' in Kwazulu Natal which took place in April this year and the winning soccer team, Nobiya, has won a free trip to Sweden where the 16-strong team will compete in the Gothia Cup, courtesy of SKF Head Office in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Star Schools were developed to give children, facing the harsh reality of HIV/Aids, hope for the future and to believe that, regardless of how difficult and tough reality is, all changes start with a dream.

Gothia Cup is the world's biggest soccer tournament for boys and girls, attracting 1500 teams from 60 countries. The tournament has been played in Sweden every July for the past 30 years and in 2006 SKF decided to become the main partner of Gothia Cup for the next 3 years. The goal of the tournament is to create a meeting place for all children, regardless of culture, age, social background or nationality and SKF is proud to be part of making it possible for local soccer teams to represent South Africa in this prestigious tournament.

As a global company, SKF is contributing to development not only through paying taxes and providing job opportunities, but also through the provision of education, training and health care.

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