Citi Philippines celebrates International Women’s Day

MANILA, Philippines - Citi Philippines marked International Women’s Day (IWD) with a full week of activities starting with employees hosting a legal clinic as well as engaging children with stories and arts and crafts sessions.

More than 40 Citi volunteers signed up to serve as legal mentors for a day for low-income women microentrepreneurs enrolled at the Citi Microenterprise Development Center (CMDC) in Quezon City, and worked alongside volunteers and officers of Virlanie Foundation in caring for orphaned children and young girls.

Citi also hosted dialogues with its senior women officers and feted successful Filipino women in a forum to share their journey to success.

“We’re pleased to celebrate IWD with activities that showcase the strong tradition of volunteerism here in Citi Philippines. We sought to reach out to women across our various stakeholders: clients; media; community partners; and of course our employees. In all these engagements, we endeavored not only to share Citi’s diversity initiatives, but more importantly, to listen to the issues that matter most to them, and how we as their financial partner can help make their dreams into realities,” said Sanjiv Vohra, Citi country officer.

This year, Citi hosted more than 150 events in 117 cities and 79 countries across the globe in celebration of IWD.

At CMDC in Quezon City, Citi’s legal team held a consultation session with microentrepreneurs to discuss their concerns on laws pertaining to small and medium enterprises as well as tax regulations and exemptions.  Funded by Citi Foundation, CMDC trains hundreds of low-income microentrepreneurs every year to help them sustain and grow their businesses. Beneficiaries also receive customized advice in the areas of operations, marketing, finance and human resources.

Over at Virlanie Foundation in Makati City, a group of more than 40 Citi volunteers came together to spread cheer to 50 young wards of Virlanie Foundation. Citi women wore purple - the IWD color – with pride, and some came with their daughters who also gamely participated in the activities.

The 20-year-old Virlanie Foundation provides street children not only with a home, but also a ready family with its close to 200 staff and volunteers, as well as a future with its focus on educating the children to become self-reliant and responsible citizens.

Citi women split into two groups - one was assigned to the shelter housing babies and toddlers up to four years old, and another group went to the shelter for young girls. In the former, the volunteers spent time reading stories, helping kids with coloring books and arts and crafts activities, or chasing after toddlers in the playground. In the latter, the young girls welcomed their big Citi sisters with hugs and a series of team building games. Citi Volunteers took their lunch with the youth and Virlanie Foundation volunteers, and right before heading home, gave away loot bags with educational materials.

“This is a true celebration of a woman’s heart - reaching out and sharing our talent and blessings with those in need,” related volunteer Agnes Mondoñedo, also the head of Learning and Development for Citi.