Making people healthier and enhancing and protecting their lives.
This is Discovery’s core purpose. We deliver on this purpose to our clients through our products and services, and by working with the broader community to make quality healthcare possible for more South Africans.
Building a better healthcare system in South Africa
Discovery’s Corporate Social Investments have grown enormously since the inception of the programme in 1999. Our growth in 1999 from R800 000 to more than R40m currently is attributed to both the considerable growth of our company and to the ongoing commitment of our executives who wish to have a positive impact on healthcare delivery in South Africa.
Healthcare in South Africa is a national asset and an area in which we can make a significant and sustainable contribution. Our contribution therefore focuses on building capacity and infrastructure in the public sector that will strengthen the healthcare system over the long term, and will make primary healthcare accessible to more South Africans. Over the past 12 years, we have focused on supporting two specific areas: primary healthcare and healthcare education. These two areas play a critical role in South Africa’s ability to meet the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
We invest through well-governed programmes and structures
We have created well-governed structures through which we fund and manage our investments to help build capacity in the public sector to allow more people to receive quality healthcare.
They include:
- The Discovery Fund, an independent trust through which we fund sustainable public sector healthcare projects, especially in the area of primary healthcare. These projects complement the delivery of primary and preventive care in the public sector and help to relieve the burden on state facilities.
- The Discovery Foundation, an independent trust which provides fellowships and grants to individuals and centres of excellence in support of the medical education of specialists and Academic Medicine in the public sector. By contributing to the education of more specialists and further medical research, we are able to provide support in a critical area for South Africa.
- A partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which uses sport to bring about social change in communities. Through this partnership, more young people experience the positive impact of sport in their lives.
- Through our public-private investments, we have committed funding to help develop capacity and infrastructure in the public healthcare sector.
Underpinning all four key areas is the Discovery Employee Volunteer Programme, which enables Discovery employees and other stakeholders to support our CSI projects. Our volunteers take part in national initiatives and also commit to long-term involvement with community projects.
