Lilly show their "hands and hearts" around South Africa

The Lilly Global Day of Service saw Lilly employees at 48 sites around the world join together on 15 May 2008 for the company's Global Day of Service - a unique event in which employees worked towards the common goal of contributing to healthier communities around the areas in which the sites are situated.

The Lilly Global Day of Service began at sunrise in New Zealand and continued across more than 35 countries until sun set in the western United States. The event organized as part of the Lilly's Hands and Hearts volunteer programme also provides a one-of-a-kind team building exercise for employees.

"I can't think of a better way to recognize our 132nd anniversary,” Global Lilly President and CEO Dr John Lechleiter said prior to the 15 May. "This will be a proud day for Lilly employees all over the world. We've never before mobilized globally, on a single day, to address an issue as important as helping our neighbors and communities. It's going to be a terrific event, and I'm extremely happy so many of our employees have signed up to participate."

In South Africa, various projects were arranged in many of the provinces, most of which involved donations of toys, food and stationery to patients and children within the community.

In Port Elizabeth, toys were donated by Lilly staff to the Paediatric ward at the Dora Nginza Hospital. In Cape Town, Lilly staff went to Brooklyn Chest Hospital, a hospital which treats MDR and XDR-TB affected adults and children and donated toys and treats there. At Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein, children were given toys and stationary and at the Sibonelo Esihle Children's Project in Chatsworth, an Aids orphanage, children were treated to gifts of toys and sports equipment, as well as a donation of some new mattresses for the patients.

For the Lilly Global Day of Service, staff at the head office in Gauteng focused on the needs of MDR-TB patients.

In Johannesburg at Sizwe Tropical Diseases Hospital, while circumstances did not allow this all to take place on 15 May, the last month has seen the staff donating volley ball courts for both adult and children MDR and XDR-TB patients, toys and stationery have also been donated. Gift packs containing some essentials such as toothpaste, toothbrush, body lotion and lip balm are being packaged and are scheduled to be given to patients in the near future.

“MDR-TB is a devastating but curable disease that is becoming more prevalent throughout South Africa,” says Dr Isaac Coker, Corporate Affairs Director for Lilly South Africa. “We were thrilled to learn the company was planning to drive a global day of service, and our thoughts immediately went to MDR-TB.

This is an illness that is affecting hundreds of people in our country, and hundreds of thousands around the world. With the enhanced focus on MDR-TB by Lilly over the last few years, we felt supporting the local school and hospital was the perfect opportunity. It's important for us to remember that we're all part of the same community.”

Lilly staff also planted roses and jasmine bushes. What started out as a plan by Lilly to help the hospital build and sustain a vegetable garden, has become a much bigger project with the help of the Department of Agriculture.

The Department heard about Lilly's initiative and decided to help by sending a member from the Department to train hospital grounds staff regarding how to build a protective structure for the vegetable garden, and how to plant and grow vegetables. Part of the Department of Agriculture's “Backyard gardens” programme, which sees schools and communities being provided with gardening utensils, structures and training, this vegetable garden will provide both food and education for the patients at Sizwe Hospital. Spinach, cabbage, beetroot, onions, carrots and beans will initially be planted since these all grow well in winter. A representative from the Department of Agriculture expects their first crop to be ready at the beginning of spring, and the department will visit the hospital and school every month to make sure that the vegetable garden is growing optimally. Besides the one vegetable garden at the school, another is being set up at the occupational therapy building at the hospital.

Priya Singh, the headmistress of the school at Sizwe, which educates approximately 35 children between the ages of 4 and 14 at any given time, says that this project will also enable these children to be better equipped to look after themselves once they are healthy and leave the school, usually after six to eight months of treatment.

Lilly has provided all the seedlings for the garden and will continue to be a support to the school and hospital with various other initiatives going forward. An event is scheduled for 18 July 2008 to introduce Lilly staff, hospital patients and healthcare workers and other stakeholders to the newly built vegetable garden at the school.