In true South African ICT Research tradition, INTERACT 2013 was run as a ‘Conference with a Conscience’. A ‘Conference with a Conscience’ aims to support the local community, raise funds for local charities, raise the conscience level of delegates of the needs of Africa’s people and its animals, and support the spirit of Ubuntu (“I am what I am because of who we all are”).
The initiatives included:
-
Going green with the conference bags, by sourcing bags recycled from billboard and created by a job creation project.
-
Providing a ‘Save the Rhino’ bracelet as a conference gift to raise the awareness amongst participants of the struggle for survival of our rhinoceros and to support efforts to protect them against poaching and being killed by the hundreds for their horn.
-
Sourcing conference dinner gifts from artists working in a community upliftment programme; and having a charity auction at the conference dinner where products made by local communities were put up for auction, the funds of which raised will go to Endinako and Emannuel Haven communities.
Conference bags being produced and conference gifts being handmade