MANILA, Philippines – When over 30 Citi employees arrived at the PAWS shelter on Katipunan Ave. in Quezon City, they were shocked to see big, painful-looking scars on the animals and how badly treated they must have been.
Anna Cabrera, executive director of PAWS, was on hand to give the Citi volunteers a tour of the facility, as well as to let them in on the work that PAWS does for animal welfare in the country.
“Every year at Citi we host Global Community Day — and this year, that worldwide day of service was set for June 11,” related Aneth Lim, Citi Philippines director for corporate citizenship. “This is one day in a year where in a spirit of solidarity across countries and continents, Citi employees demonstrate our commitment to the communities where we live and work.”
“Here in the Philippines, we opened up opportunities for our colleagues to give back over several weekends,” said Lim. “For us it started last May 21 and we will continue to have events until June 18. This is our 11th year to hold this event in the country and it is the first time that we have chosen the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) to be one of our partners and beneficiaries.”
While the volunteers waited for the activity to start, many of them were seen visiting the cages where the abandoned dogs and cats are housed and some of them were already looking for information on how to adopt a cat or dog.
“I am pleasantly surprised at the turnout. Because of the strong interest when we first announced the activity here in PAWS, what was supposed to be one event became two. Next week, we will back with at least 30 more volunteers.”
Citi Volunteer Kathleen Mateo with young volunteer Julliana Tan
Help For The Furry Friends And More
It was fun to watch the Citi volunteers as they followed Anna around the shelter, asked questions and listened intently to the many stories of rescue that each animal of the shelter was part of.
Bea Tan’s family chose to spend a Saturday morning at the PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center for Global Community Day. Citi Philippines’ head of consumer bank said, “We have been pet lovers for years, and found the talk of Anna very insightful.”
Tan added that her daughter enjoyed feeding the cats, and helping clean the shelter while her husband and two sons did their share for the gardens all around the center.
What was a common sentiment of all the Citi volunteers was that it was difficult to see how some of the animals were badly treated, as evidenced by their scars.
“We hope that in our small little way, we were able to help,” Tan said.
Stay clean: Citi employees do cleanup chores at the shelter.
A Spirit Of Bayanihan
Volunteerism has become a time-honored tradition at Citi, more so since Global Community Day was formally introduced in 2006. Rain or shine, Citi volunteers sign up and do their share in making their communities a better place.
For the five Saturdays, Citi volunteers, together with family and friends, will be engaged in a wide range of community activities. These include mentoring micro-entrepreneurs on personal finance and risk management, others are helping public schools get ready for opening of classes, and then you have those who are literally bringing light to low-income communities who have no access to electricity by making solar lamps.
Citi also has volunteers who wanted to spend time with children — playing street games such as patintero and tumbang preso, or treating them to a movie (some of the kids’ first cinema-going experience) or helping the kids write thank-you letters to their sponsors. There’s also a small group who chose to be with the elderly and visited a nursing home in Marikina.
Last year, over 80,000 Citi volunteers worked alongside community partners at service projects in 487 cities across 93 countries in the days leading up to and including Global Community Day.
This year, Citi wanted to engage even more deeply with the community with more than 1,000 events planned across the world. In the Philippines, Citi will have 19 events in 10 cities with more than 4,000 volunteers joining.
“We know we have the greatest impact when we come together to accomplish a shared goal — one of enabling progress and growth for the communities we serve daily,” said Lim. “Of course, with everything we learned at PAWS, we hope our volunteers will not just come out of this as more responsible pet owners, but also find reasons to return and help the shelter even in small ways.”
Say meowwwww: Cat got the hearts of these volunteers.