Volunteers feel the love at Hope Schools
Print Edition
TEACHING a science class at Xihai Art Hope School in Qinqhai Province back in 2001 has proven to be momentous event in Olaf Dehnbostel’s life.
Unilever’s global human resources director for personal care says the genuineness of the children creating a lasting impression.
“The openness and warmth they gave us strangers touches on a deeper level and shows what really matters in life,” he says. “I can only encourage others to engage and do small things that can make a big difference.”
Dehnbostel says he was a part of a 14-member Unilever team that spent a week at Xihai Art Hope School. They taught classes and played games and sports with the students.
In 2006, he says the company launched the Unilever Volunteer Actions program, which encourages employees to take one week of paid leave to spend time with children at Unilever Hope Schools around China. Each person is given some training so they could be able to teach lessons in subjects like environmental protection, English and art. More than 200 Unilever employees have visited schools in rural areas in Sichuan, Anhui and Qinghai provinces, introducing students to a different perspective.
This year Unilever joined Youth for Environmental Sustainability, a Shanghai Roots & Shoots initiative to teach the importance of caring for the planet to children around China.
As part of YES, Unilever employees volunteer in elementary and middle schools, helping students carry out green initiatives and environmentally friendly activities.
About 40 Unilever employees have volunteered this year.
Zhang Xiaobo, who works in the company’s customer development department, spent one week at the hope school in Meishan City, Sichuan Province.
The parents of these children often work far from home and the grandparents are usually busy with farm work, meaning they have little time to spend with the kids.
“Through the tiniest effort, we let these kids know the world has not abandoned them,” he says. “Although we may not be able to teach the children so much during our brief stay, spending time with them opens the kids up to new possibilities.”
The company’s employees have also actively volunteered at the “Race for Survival” running events in the past two years.
Unilever employees served as referees and cheerleaders at the races, a project initiated in 2011 by the charity organization Save the Children.
This year, 80 students from Wenxin School in Pujiang Town in Minhang District and 222 children from Xinjiang Autonomous Region took part in the race with children from 50 countries.
“Spending time with school children has helped me develop my teaching abilities and whenever the children learn something new it motivates me to get better,” Zhang said.
Dehnbostel adds: “For Unilever, corporate social responsibility is not just a public relations campaign, but something deeply ingrained in our corporate DNA, something that lives and breathes in the whole organization.”
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