NEWS: Volunteering time

A multinational company initiates a project that enables its employees to engage in voluntary work.

IT’s easy to relegate voluntary work to those who are “passionate” about it. But IT multinational IBM has made it a work culture.

Its “on-demand community” project, started in 2003, is about engaging every employee in voluntary work. IBM marketing director Eric Wong says that the programme aims to “create a spirit of volunteerism among employees, so they can impart their skills, technology and knowledge to the community they work with.”

Currently, 549, or 40% of the company’s employees in Malaysia, are involved in various voluntary projects.

Wong: The company has initiated many programmes for the improvement and development of education.

One of them is Business Service senior consultant Goh Gee Kheng, who embarked on her first project last year. She cleaned toilets at SK Taman Kepong in Kuala Lumpur, where she is a PTA member, together with four other parents. They scrubbed and washed the toilets with washing liquids and brooms brought from home.

Goh says the school has since kept its toilets clean. There is even a mural in one of the toilets.

“We have one project coming up called the Bacathon in which students read to raise funds,” Goh says. There will be a month of competitions, recitals and quizzes. These will culminate on the final day with more activities, and guests will be invited to make donations.

The “on-demand community” programme allows employees to apply for community grants from IBM after clocking 40 hours of service.

“We provide up to RM12,000 per grant,” explains Wong. Employees are eligible to apply for more than one grant so long as they can show proof of the accumulated time spent and the nature of their projects.

“We will assess the project and allocate funding accordingly,” he says.

Goh, who has passed the 40-hour mark through her participation in PTA meetings and projects, recently made a request for a US$1,000 (RM 3,252) grant to buy books for SK Taman Kepong.

“I want to get good English and Bahasa Malaysia books and my target is to have up to 400 books, in the first batch,” she says.

“My objective is to buy classics and award-winning books that will inspire students.”

She hopes to enlist the help of her friends and parents in wrapping the books and to conduct story-telling sessions to complement the existing reading programme in the school.

Goh reading a book to SK Taman Kepong pupils. She will use her community grant from IBM to buy books for the school.

The school management has expressed its gratitude for the books.

This is just one example of how schools have benefited from IBM’s corporate volunteer programmes, says Wong, who adds that the company has initiated various other programmes for the development of education.

“Our end-to-end education framework is comprehensive, and it covers those in preschool to senior citizens. We don’t leave anyone out.”

Providing learning software, educational web portals and a mentorship programme for students are some of the programmes offered.

The company has also launched a Young Enterprise Programme, under which students set up their own businesses to learn about the market place,

Employees can also benefit from volunteering as they pick up new skills and knowledge which can help in their career advancement and mobility, Wong says.

But for Goh, her reason for volunteering is simple.

“When we ask parents for help, they think it isn’t their responsibility but the government’s. However, if we want to see change, it has to start with us.”