Page 13 - Sphere No.28 (Mar 2011)

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Sphere
cal touch was a competition to choose the giraffe’s name,
Marionilde.
“The Marionnaud Giraffe is a way to protect an animal
at risk of extinction, help the Lisbon Zoo and help a charity
organisation that supports orphans all at the same time,”
said one of the participants.
“Our customers loved the idea and our staff are proud of
having helped. It is good to be able to support the com-
munity and show the bright side of being human. It helps
create a better world, especially for the orphans, or children
with problematic families, and helped our customers to
act for the good of others and be good citizens. Customers
often identify with our principles and hence develop a sense
of loyalty towards Marionnaud.”
Staff were so enthused by the campaign that they have
continued to raise funds for orphans, most recently with a
Christmas dinner auction, where pieces of art made by dif-
ferent Marionnaud departments were sold to raise funds.
All over the world
Older people were targeted for help by staff of 3 in Ireland
when the company launched a competition to find the
country’s most inspirational “silver surfer”, showing that
age is no barrier to mastery of the Internet. In Panama,
employees of the Panama Ports Company and their families
joined hands with Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
to carry out a beach and coastal clean-up with the com-
pany’s scuba divers carrying out underwater duties. The
great outdoors was also the target of a campaign by Husky
Energy in Canada, which has an ongoing partnership with
Calgary Zoo to return ferrets to the wild.
In Australia, poor Aborigines in remote regions are
being helped by a Vodafone Hutchison Australia initiative.
The Red Dust Role Models scheme seeks to improve the
health and wellbeing of disadvantaged youths in remote
communities. Positive role models from the fields of sport,
music, art, health and business take part in tours to these
communities, encouraging healthy lifestyle decisions and
promoting education. Each year 20 of Vodafone’s employ-
ees get the opportunity to see the effects for themselves, by
participating in a tour.
The HWL schemes are incredibly varied but funda-
mentally, their underlying theme focuses on making lives
better in the communities they live and work in. There is no
secret ingredient in giving back to society and making the
everyday lives of individuals better than yesterday. The key
component simply is employees’ true sincerity coming from
within, not out of duty, but from their hearts. Their experi-
ences of witnessing people who are struggling, galvanises
them into taking action that helps improve the lives of
society’s less advantaged individuals – it may be an idea that
occurs on the spur of the moment, yet it can have an impact
that will last a lifetime.