Employees Volunteer To Help Children In Need

In many developing countries, education and training for children and teens is a huge problem. Because of this, the Munich-based Arvato employee Manuela Chersi has for many years been committed to improving the lives of kids in poor regions of the world. It all began in 1989 on a vacation in Indonesia with her parents. In South Java, they got to know a fisherman’s family that lacked the income to finance the education of their children. Manuela Chersi and her parents promptly offered to finance the school costs for the oldest daughter and have done so ever since, enabling her to graduate from high school. “Elvianti has been enrolled at university since September of this year,” says Manuela Chersi, “and we would like to support her housing costs and university fees with the work of our association.”

Italian-born Chersi, who works as an assistant to the Head of Purchasing at Rewards Arvato Services, teamed up with five colleagues and two other friends a year ago to set up the “Happy Bambini” society; the club now counts eleven members and has had a very successful year during which they accomplished a great deal. Manuela Chersi and her Rewards Arvato Services colleagues Alexandra Wiedmer, Christoph Hage, Dalina Aldea and Natasa Lepan, as well as Alessandro Fraracci, Cinzia Lizza, Christine Reinhard, Eufemia Lorusso, Gunther Accomplished and Susanne Pappalardo tackled five big projects simultaneously: “We mainly focus on projects that don’t get any help from the major non-profit organizations,” explains Chersi. “Our society is supported in this by many friends, acquaintances and colleagues.” Some 15 Arvato colleagues support “Happy Bambini’s” with regular donations, she says.

In one project in Honduras, a new classroom in at Julian Lopez Pineda school was completed in May after just six weeks of construction. “We heard about the school from a friend who lives in Honduras. He also supervised the project on site,” says Chersi. “Our donations not only served to build and set up the classroom, but also gave helped local craftsmen work.” Much of the money for the construction was provided by a Christmas donation from Arvato: the Arvato subsidiary Webmiles, as well as Deutschlandcard and Arvato Rewards made their Christmas donations to the “Happy Bambini” society to support the voluntary work of their employees.

Improving integration into everyday life

In another project, last year the “Happy Bambini” team had supported the renovation of the sanitary facilities in a school building in Nepal, and the establishment of a library. Among other things, they donated books and two laptops that Arvato had contributed in support of the “Happy Bambini” project. The team is currently promoting the development of a home for children with disabilities in Nepal, to facilitate their better integration into everyday life.

“The property was purchased in September, and construction is scheduled to begin in mid-November,” says Manuela Chersi. “For these projects, we are working closely with a friend who has lived in Nepal for the past 20 years. She knows what needs to be done, and she knows the people and the language. This regional tie-in with the people is very important to us in all our projects. That’s why we always work with a specific local contact whom we trust.” The construction of the house in Nepal is an important project for “Happy Bambini,” as it will be the region’s first public and official institution for children with disabilities. “At this point, there are 32 children aged 6 to 13, and fifty new requests have already been received,” says Chersi. Help is desperately needed: in some cases, parents keep their children with disabilities hidden or even chain them to their beds. The establishment of an official institution is hoped to help them go public and spare the children a great deal of suffering. To ensure that the kids actually learn something at the center, the society guarantees that there will be teachers on hand to teach the children.

A big raffle for metal stoves

Fifteen years ago, Italian doctors set up a clinic in Askole, a village in Pakistan. Last year, they alerted the “Happy Bambini” team to the circumstance that the traditional cooking fires in the homes of the villagers harm their health with smoke and soot. To prevent this, the team of doctors recommended that metal stoves be purchased. The society’s members promptly ran a big raffle to raise the money for the stoves. “We raffled off a tour of Munich in my classic car among all the people who donated money for a stove,” says Chersi. “So many people participated that we were able to purchase fifty stoves, which will be installed next year.”

» Ref.: benet.bertelsmann.de