Paying It Forward In South Africa

Irish woman helps Little Leaps Autism Preschool in Pretoria with EML Change for Good initiative

The Little Leaps preschool for young children with Autism in Centurion, Pretoria, has benefitted from a surprise ZAR20,000+ school supplies donation from EML, a global Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) Open Banking Fintech and changemaker.

As part of the company’s Change For Good initiative, employees are encouraged to give back to communities to help make a positive impact in the world. EML’s volunteering culture for social impact amounts to over 7,500+ volunteer hours annually.

EML’s Global Director of Public Relations, Irish woman Marie O’Riordan, is Autistic. This year, she gave her volunteering days to Little Leaps during her holidays and plans to return to the preschool in June/July 2022. Marie’s partner is South African and is a frontline healthcare worker based at a hospital in Ireland who has returned home for the first time in two years after international travel restrictions were lifted.

A former Journalist, Marie has spoken on stages in four continents on Autism, diversity, inclusion, neurodiversity and financial inclusion/empowerment in developing countries. It’s her fourth visit to Africa and second volunteering assignment on the continent. Some years ago, she made a documentary in Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya, to follow up her historic documentary with Saint Mother Teresa in Kolkata, India.

Marie added: “The future is bright for the 40 young superstar pupils I was fortunate to interact with this week. Specialist Autism education is vitally important, and the team at Little Leaps are doing extraordinary work in the community. The local Bidvest Waltons team in Centurion were a tremendous help and kindly added to EML’s donation with additional supplies for the pupils, teachers, and classrooms.

“I’m so grateful EML continues to lead the way in the payments ecosystem with impactful Change For Good initiatives worldwide. The company prides itself on being an inclusive employer and finds the most innovative ways to evolve its payment solutions for customers and communities globally. As an Autistic employee, I’m thankful to benefit from EML’s progressiveness in welcoming neurodiverse team members. I’m excited to revisit Little Leaps next year.”

Finally, a low sugar cupcakes party was a hit with the children when a local master baker created rainbow treats. A rainbow is one of the universally recognised symbols for positive Autism representation.

Little Leaps is a registered non-profit organisation in South Africa with Section 18A status – NPO 076-636 and PBO 930032628.

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