As Secretary of the All Party South Africa Group, Nestle asked if I would lead a group of MPs and Peers to South Africa between 21 and 26th January. At first, I must admit to being hesitant, being so close to an election, but then I thought what a wonderful opportunity, especially when a number of those living in the  Vale of York work in Nestlé’s York Factory. I was delighted to be excused from Parliamentary activities for those few days and looked forward to the visit.

The programme was packed, and apart from a deceptively gentle pace over the weekend, we then went at a cracking rate. Commencing with a thorough briefing of Nestlé’s activities in South Africa, and the 19 markets in which they operate on the African Continent, we also had a full run down of their internal HIV / AIDS identification programme.  This was followed by meetings with Professor Dimitri Labadarios, a leading nutritonalist and with Tony Frost, Chief Executive Officer of the World Wide Fund for Nature, we also visited the WARMTH project (War Against Malnutrition Tuberculosis and Hunger) in the townships near Cape Town.

To see first hand what was being achieved in spite of extremely basic conditions was truly heart warming. The dedication of a few powerful and energetic ladies and the support of the communities was hugely impressive.

We toured a Nestlé factory, specifically the Cross and Blackwell plant at Belleville. We had a full briefing and saw first hand the packaging and distribution centre and met a great number of the workforce there.  Their commitment and loyalty was very evident.

The visit then took us too to Johannesburg, where we met the Market Head of Nestlé Southern & East Africa, and had a lengthy discussion on their operations and charitable works in South Africa. We were whisked up to Nelspruit for the day in Mmpulanga and saw the Ecolink project and met some of the growers, working in tremendously difficult conditions through the heat of the day, often with a new born child on their back. Nestle having installed a series of water tanks and watering system, the locals in the community dig trenches twice a year to grow two different crops to feed themselves and selling any surplus off.

Finally, we visited the early learning centres under the head start project, taking exciting education techniques to preschool children. This was the brain child of Shirley Orsmond and made possible by a series of very strong willed ladies whose confidence in their teaching skills grew having undertaken the head start tuition programme.

The excitement of the various classes at receiving such an unusual visit was very evident, especially seeing themselves on a digital camera.  Nestlé presented a number of welcome hampers and reading books in connection with our visit.

The dedication and spirit of the people to make a success of each project in often nigh impossible and challenging conditions was inspirational and humbling.

For all that it was such a short space of time, we were delighted to have been welcomed into the bosom of the Nestle family and to see first hand the charitable works they do, with a limited budget but working with the tremendous human resources and channelling their energy and passion to such positive effect.

Nestlé’s work is strongly encouraged and relied upon by the South African Government.  The Government knows that it cannot transform South Africa overnight or on its own but is heavily dependent on work of major multinational companies and non-governmental organisations, working together with Government.