Admincontrol and Sabona
Sabona
Background:
Sabona is a humanitarian organisation working at a grassroots level in the northern part of Zimbabwe. It was founded by Ynghild Solholm after she travelled to the country in 1999. Her journey eventually led her to the village of Dopota, where she started working as an English teacher, and raising awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
When she saw children fainting in class from thirst and hunger she knew she had to do something more. She organised a charity concert back home in Norway and with the money raised from the concert and her own student loan, she started a food station at Dopota Primary School. This food station provided all children attending school with a hot and nutritious meal every day. With this, Sabona was born.
Twenty years later, Sabona`s work has spread to several communities in Matabeleland North in Zimbabwe. With their holistic approach, they work with projects on education, health, employment, and infrastructure, all of which are areas that need to work well in order to have a thriving society. Projects are initiated and owned by the local populaces, and the aim is to provide the tools needed to sustain the projects over time. By offering the necessary training and education on the different projects, they empower the locals to take complete ownership and keep the projects alive.
Admincontrol and Sabona
We started our partnership with Sabona in 2012, and 11 years later we are still going strong.
When we were looking for a partner, we were hoping to find an organisation that shared our core values, someone we could work closely with and, where we could get updates and follow projects first-hand. It was also important for us that any organisation we would partner with was working with sustainable projects. With all this in mind, Sabona was a perfect fit for us.
To strengthen our collaboration, we aim to be as involved as possible. First of all, we get insights into the progress and results of projects Sabona is working with, and a sneak peak into new initiatives. We’ve also had several visits from the Norwegian part of the organisation over the years, coming to educate us about Zimbabwe and the situation in the country. This way, we understand better how they prioritize projects the way they do, and how important it is for Sabona to have partners.
Second, we join in on events to help further strengthen their work. Every year we attend Standup Aid hosted by Latter in Oslo, which is a big fundraiser event.
Sabona also hosts partner gatherings, where we meet other companies that also supports them, so we can talk about experiences and learn more about how others involve themselves.
As a token of how dedicated we are about this organisation, many of our colleagues have signed up for private sponsorships as well. They get personal greetings from the children they sponsor, with updates on how their education is going and what they like to do for fun when school is over.
If you want to learn more about how we work with Sabona, you can listen to the Admincontrol x Sabona 10 years – webinar, (Norwegian language only) were we talk about the partnership, projects, and tips to how your company can get involved.