Press release -
Discovery donates 15,000 balls to support sports development at local schools
Johannesburg, 22 February 2024– Thembalethu Primary School in Soweto played host today to the official handover of 10,000 netballs and 5,000 rugby balls to underprivileged schools across South Africa. The donation comes from Discovery and its clients, who contributed either by donating their rewards through Vitality’s philanthropic crowdfunding platform “MoveToGive” or by tapping their Discovery Bank virtual cards around the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Discovery also donated a netball for every goal scored by our national side, the Spar Proteas during the Netball World Cup.
Thembalethu is one of more than 1 000 schools, which are beneficiaries of the donation that will be distributed by six non-profit sports development organisations. The organisations are Netball South Africa, Tag Rugby Association, VUKA Rugby, South African Deaf Rugby Association and Dreamfields Projects, each of which work with communities where sports opportunities are limited, and provide coaching, equipment, and tournaments for young players.
Firoze Bhorat, Discovery’s Chief Marketing Officer said, “Sport has the power to inspire young girls and boys to achieve their goals and dreams, and we’re excited to make this donation as part of our commitment to promote sports development and physical activity to build a healthier society. We also thank Discovery clients for making this donation possible through their incredible participation in the campaigns we ran over the Netball and Rugby World Cup tournaments last year.”
The official handover ceremony was attended by representatives from the receiving organisations as well as officials from the Department of Sports & Recreation who expressed their gratitude for the support.
Driven by its aim to be a force for social good, the two campaigns Discovery ran – #LetsGoal and Discovery Bank’s TapToGive – worked as follows:
- #Let’sGoal allowed Vitality members to donate the Discovery Miles they earned by reaching their weekly exercise goal through MoveToGive (Vitality’s philanthropic crowdfunding platform) towards a netball. A total of 2500 netballs raised.
- Discovery Bank’s TapToGive campaign coincided with the 2023 Rugby World Cup between September and November and through it, clients donated rugby balls and netballs. If a client used their Discovery Bank virtual card for 50 in-store taps or online payments, one rugby ball or netball was donated on their behalf. Discovery Bank clients embraced the opportunity to give and activated almost 46,000 new limited-edition virtual cards. A total of 62,000 clients shopped enough to achieve a total of 590,000 taps, enabling the donation of 5,000 rugby balls and 5,000 netballs.
As the official wellness partner to Netball South Africa, Discovery also donated netballs for every goal scored by the Spar Proteas during the World Cup. This resulted in the donation of 2500 balls.
“South Africa had a remarkable year in sports in 2023, and we all experienced the excitement of being united through sport. These campaigns came at the perfect time to enable sports supporters across the country to help develop sport at its foundation,” Bhorat added.
About the beneficiaries:
- Tag Rugby Association – a non‑profit, public benefit organisation and an Associate Member of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) that develops youth sport programmes.
- VUKA Rugby – a sustainable rugby programme developed by the South African Rugby Legends (SARLA), in partnership with SARU, that aims to develop and promote rugby in disadvantaged communities and areas where it is not being played.
- South African Deaf Rugby Association – an associate member of SARU that supports deaf and hard‑of‑hearing youth and creates opportunities for them to play rugby regionally and internationally.
- Dreamfields – a non-profit organisation that uses the power of sport – including finding and coaching the next generation of netball stars – to create better schools, more opportunities and stronger communities in rural areas and townships.
- Netball South Africa – the governing body for netball in South Africa which is responsible for overseeing the practice of the sport across the country.
ENDS
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Discovery Limited is a South African-founded financial services organisation that operates in the healthcare, life assurance, short-term insurance, banking, savings and investment and wellness markets. Since inception in 1992, Discovery has been guided by a clear core purpose – to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. This has manifested in its globally recognised Vitality Shared-Value insurance model, active in over 40 markets with over 20 million members. The model is exported and scaled through the Global Vitality Network, an alliance of some of the largest insurers across key markets including AIA (Asia), Ping An (China), Generali (Europe), Sumitomo (Japan), John Hancock (US), Manulife (Canada) and Vitality Life & Health (UK, wholly owned). Discovery trades on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange as DSY.
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About Discovery Bank
Discovery Bank is part of Discovery Limited, a financial services organisation that operates in healthcare, life assurance, short-term insurance, investments, banking, and wellness industries, in over 40 markets globally. Built on a shared-value model, Discovery Bank is fundamentally designed to create unique shared value for clients, differentiating the Bank from traditional banking models. Clients are encouraged to manage their money well, monetising healthy financial behaviours that lower their financial risk and realises long-term default and risk savings for the Bank. Discovery Bank shares this value with clients in the form of better interest rates, deep discounts and significant rewards from an exclusive retail, lifestyle and wellness partner network. The model has an overall positive impact on clients, society and Discovery Bank - clients experience greater financial wellbeing, the risk of defaults for Discovery Bank is lowered making the business more sustainable; while improved financial behaviours such as increased savings, higher retirement savings and lower debt levels, benefit society as a whole. Behaviour change and rewards are enabled through Vitality Money, an AI-powered programme on the Discovery Bank app that gives clients an understanding of the behaviours that influence their financial wellbeing, while giving them the tools to improve their financial behaviours. The more clients improve their financial behaviour, the higher their Vitality Money status and the greater the value they receive.
