The volunteers planted 3,000 trees for a mangrove forest at Bangpoo Nature Education Center, organized a safety training course and donated 12 fire extinguishers to 120 school children at SOS Children’s Village Bangpoo Samutprakarn. DHL also donated 14 refrigerators to the SOS Children’s Village Chiang Rai impacted by the earthquake earlier this year. DHL Thailand will continue to organize more activities for youths of SOS Children’s Villages Thailand in the coming months, having just kick-started a partnership as part of the Group’s GoTeach program.
Since 1971 SOS Children’s Villages Thailand have been supporting children who are orphaned, abandoned or neglected, help them grow up in the most natural way possible and guide them on their path from childhood to adulthood. There are 700 children being cared for in five SOS Children’s Villages all over Thailand, Bangpoo Samutprakarn, Hatyai Songkla, Nongkhai, Chiang Rai and Phuket, and SOS mothers provide children who have lost their parental care with a supportive and a loving home. Presently, SOS Children’s Villages Thailand has raised and delivered more than 500 responsible and independent adults who are living as valuable and contributing members of society.
“All of us at DHL are passionately committed to this collective initiative of giving back to the communities where we live and work,” said Chananyarak Phetcharat, Managing Director, DHL Express Thailand and Indochina. We launched Global Volunteer Day in 2008 and since then our annual events have become a very strong rallying point that remains guided by the Group’s motto of Living Responsibility. “Respect and Results”- as detailed in our internal Mission Statement are practical and inseparable drivers for all of us at DHL.”
“We are delighted that the DHL Group in Thailand has recognized and been so enthusiastic in responding to the social development needs of some of the most vulnerable children and young people in Thailand,” said Chantira Somboonkerd, Deputy National Director & Head of Fund Development and Communications, SOS Children’s Villages Thailand “These deserving children are grateful for everything that is done to give them a second chance to grow up in a loving home, help them lead happy, healthy and successful lives.”
“Our employees are delighted to have now made Global Volunteer Day an annual event among other CSR focused projects on our calendars. We continue to believe that our employees are our greatest inspiration and source of success,” said Kevin Burrell, CEO, DHL Supply Chain, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. We look forward to organizing and effectively completing many other employee volunteering projects that we undertake as a company.”
“One of our primary objectives with the Volunteer Day initiative is to fulfill the commitment we have to our Corporate Responsibility strategy via our three programs – GoGreen, GoHelp and GoTeach,” said Edwin Pinto, Head of Sales, DHL Global Forwarding Thailand.” We take great pride in these programs consistently yielding positive results in terms of sustainable development, enabling businesses to thrive when and where society thrives.”
Introduced in Asia Pacific in 2008, Volunteer Day has expanded into Americas, Middle East, Africa and Europe over the years, and continues to build on its success by involving more employees than ever before. In 2013, the initiative was rolled out as a year-long program and was a tremendous success, achieving the support of about 100,000 employees and over 3,000 customers and business partners in 127 countries and territories, who participated in about 1,600 community programs.
For Global Volunteer Day 2014, Deutsche Post DHL offices around the world are participating in many diverse community projects in support of various local causes. These programs deliver to the company’s three Corporate Responsibility programs –GoGreen (protecting the environment), GoHelp (delivering help) and GoTeach (improving educational opportunity and employability).