Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay Takes Social Responsibility to Heart

There’s plenty of need on South Africa’s West Coast where cuts to fishing quotas in recent years have left whole communities destitute, and the hard work of Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay’s STAFF to alleviate this suffering has earned them the Protea Hospitality Group’s prestigious CSI Award.

The award is made annually to the property among the 125 Protea Hotels and African Pride Hotels on the continent that demonstrates a broad-based commitment to improving the lives of those in need, whether it be through providing meals to primary school children or prize vouchers to NPOs.

Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay’s GM Berneance Nel says their CSI projects for 2012 were extremely wide-ranging; from retirement homes to animal welfare and handicapped children. “The West Coast is very close knit; a place where neighbours know each other and one person’s problem is everyone’s problem. It makes our outreach work that much more personal to the TEAM at the hotel, because we’re helping our neighbours in the communities where our families have lived for generations.”

Among the projects undertaken by the Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay TEAM in 2012 are:

• A cupcake drive at the West Coast Mall in which 2 000 cupcakes were baked and sold in one day. Raffle tickets were also sold that netted an additional R5 000 and the money is being used to by essentials for a local community old age home.
• A dog washing day to raise funds for the local Animal Anti-Cruelty organisation.
• A “spinnathon” to raise funds and collect goods for a home that tends to handicapped children.
• A Reach for a Dream outing for a local boy with aplastic anaemia, whose entire family spent a day at the Ratanga Junction theme park, including a special lunch at which the boy was presented with his very own Playstation and games.

Protea Hospitality Group Marketing and Advertising Manager Nicholas Barenblatt said the TEAM at Protea Hotel Saldanha Bay were a fantastic example of what those in the hospitality industry could achieve if they were prepared to give their time and energy to help improve the lives of those less fortunate.
“It’s a minimum requirement in Protea Hotels that each and every hotel, our regional offices and head office support at least one charity. Most have numerous projects on the go at any given time.
“At head office level we support a host of NPOs including Reach for a Dream, Afrika Tikkun, Groote Schuur Cancer Ward, iLitha Labantu, Uthando, the Carthorse Association and the South African Medical and Education Foundation.
“All hotels in the Protea Hospitality Group are immovable parts of their local communities and as such had a responsibility towards them, which is why we consider social investment to be one of the cornerstones of our business.” Barenblatt said.

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