Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the AIDS Orphans

A new colleague I met on Monday this week told me what he does outside of his work activities. Unlike many young people of his generation, he looks after 500 children who have been orphaned by AIDS. He is a special one because he sponsors all these kids from his own money. To date, he has had no sponsors from either individuals or corporations.

Orphans have a higher chance of turning to criminal activity, prostitution, exclusion from school, and other social implications. Their health suffers due to poor diets. They are a vulnerable group who can be abused by adults.

The African Tradition itself is failing some of the orphans because the surviving adult relatives are themselves finding it extremely difficult to cope with their own livelihoods. AIDS, poverty and other diseases are weakening the collectivist power of the African Tradition.

The governments find it difficult to assist orphans as they have other social and economic ills such as high unemployment, crime and massive corruption to deal with.

Then, where does Corporate Social Responsibility fit in? The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication "Making Good Business Sense" by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, defined Corporate Social Responsibility as "the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large".

Different societies and cultures view CSR in different ways. The Philippines define CSR as
“business giving back to society", according to the world business council for sustainable development. For me, the Philippine definition suits me just fine. There are many profitable corporations around the world, despite the downturn. A tiny proportion of the profits would go a long way if corporations donated funds to causes that help orphans in the poor countries who reel from crisis to crisis and are denied their childhood by AIDS or other diseases.

If Brighton Mumvuri (http://www.hopehousefoundation.co.uk/) can look after 500 AIDS orphans, what more can a corporation do.