Community engagement | RA International Services

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Sustainability in action
Community engagement

"What we can. Where we are."

In addition to the contribution we make to the SDGs through our core business activities, we also contribute to specific community engagement projects. We call it ‘what we can, where we are’.

Over the years, we have been involved in more than 30 community engagement projects

Past initiatives

Construction of a community well in Bentui, South Sudan

Provision of manpower to assist with a cholera survey in South Sudan led by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Contribution of manpower to assist with the cholera prevention program led by MSF in Juba, South Sudan

Provision of food supplies to the leprosy community in Juba, South Sudan

Provision of construction materials to the local community in Nimule, South Sudan, to reinforce their houses during the wet season

Support to charity Confident Children out of Conflict, through monthly food donations

Financial contribution to the International Child Day in Sudan

Contribution of food and beverages to support UNAMID in the feeding of children in Darfur, Sudan

Provision of resources to a prison support program in Sudan led by the UN

Assisted with hospital sterilization and disinfection program in Kunduz led by the Norwegian Government

Donation of food and toilets to the central orphanage in Kabul

Upgraded waste and sanitation at Kabul international Airport in support of Haj travellers

Rehabilitation of female Hammam’s (public baths)

Support to widows through direct employment & training in laundry facilities

Support to widows through direct employment & training at the first commercial bakery in Afghanistan

Opening of a recycling yard in Kabul with all the profits going to the community of Bagram

Financial contributions to the Women of Hope support program in Afghanistan

Provision of waste services to the schools in Jalalabad road through NATO

Food support and distribution with various charities in Afghanistan.

Hospital cleaning and disinfecting in Abeche to reduce patient infections

Town cleaning in Abeche – Cholera prevention awareness program

Hazmat recycling in N’djamena

Donation of hospital supplies to the female Clinic in Mogadishu

Support to the Mogadishu Times newspaper (financial and materials)

Donation of footballs to refugee camps in Somalia

Reparations of the Mogadishu Airport Runway in January 2014

Donation to support the victims of the terror attack in Mogadishu in October 2017

Provided emergency food aid as part of AMISOM relief effort in Somalia 2017

Official partner to Free As A Human initiative by Kenyan fashion designer and activist Anyango Mpinga since 2018

Supported WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) initiative in Somalia, 2018

Here are a few stories that show how we do “What we can. Where we are.”

Helping an Olympic athlete be a role model to her community

Not many companies have an Olympic athlete on their staff, but RA does! We’re proud to have Elisabeth Mandaba as part of our team in the Central African Republic.

Helping an Olympic athlete be a role model to her community

Not many companies have an Olympic athlete on their staff, but RA does! We’re proud to have Elisabeth Mandaba as part of our team in the Central African Republic.

Elisabeth represented her country at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she set the national record in the Women’s 800 metres.

In countries like CAR, where state funding for sports is limited or non-existent, athletes often have to support their activities through regular work. To facilitate Elisabeth’s sporting career, we decided to offer her flexible working arrangements and to sponsor her training fees and kits.

Besides helping Elisabeth directly, this also gives other young female athletes a role model and helps put the country on the sporting map.

Official partner to Free As A Human

Since 2018, RA International has been an official partner to Free As A Human, an initiative by Kenyan fashion designer and social activist Anyango Mpinga to end the sexual exploitation of young girls, the use of child labour and all other forms of human enslavement.

Official partner to Free As A Human

Free As A Human supports the fundraising efforts of HAART Kenya to build and run a sustainable shelter in Nairobi for female victims of human trafficking. RA funded the architectural drawings for the shelter and we are supporting Free As A Human’s efforts to get it built. Read more here.

Emergency food aid

RA has a strong presence across Somalia, where the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) is an important partner. When AMISOM put out a call for emergency relief in March 2018, we were among the first to respond.

Emergency food aid

We reviewed the stock in our warehouse and donated spare milk powder, beans, cereals, rice, cooking oil and sugar to feed people who were dying of hunger in the Lower Shabelle region of Somalia. In this case, our local presence and well-managed supply chain allowed us to support a humanitarian effort with fast and efficient practical support.

Helping the children

In early 2017, our staff in Bangui, CAR, could not help noticing the run-down building full of children, which lay just a ten-minute drive from our office. They asked around and learnt that it was an orphanage run by Nuns and home to forty-five orphaned children.

Helping the children

The orphanage was clearly in need of help, so, after asking the sisters what they needed, our team arranged to pay their monthly utility bills, set up a twice-monthly delivery of food, and regularly avail RA staff to upgrade their facilities. Simultaneously, we are assisting the orphanage in becoming more self-sufficient and setting up its own income-generating activities, making them less dependent on our donations and thereby enabling them to better support the children in the long term.

While this is clearly just a drop in the ocean, we believe that RA’s partnership with the orphanage will give the children who live there today, and those that inevitably follow them, a better chance in life for years to come.

WASH initiatives in Somalia

When our team in Somalia understood the severity of the humanitarian crisis caused by the persisting drought in Southern Somalia in May 2017, they wasted no time in offering support.

WASH initiatives in Somalia

When our team in Somalia understood the severity of the humanitarian crisis caused by the persisting drought in Southern Somalia in May 2017, they wasted no time in offering support.

They contacted UNICEF, coordinator of the local WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) cluster, to find out how they could help. Sanitation proved the most pressing problem since the number of fatalities had increased due to diarrhea and cholera. As such, we built latrines, put up water tanks and hand washing facilities, and distributed soaps and jerrycans in five IDP camps.

Says Muhamed, RA’s Country Manager in Somalia: “In situations like these, there’s no time to lose. Decisive action from an experienced team can have immediate impact and saves lives.”