Over 7,000 BBVA employees celebrate Global Volunteers Week

BBVA employees, in many cases accompanied by family members and friends, showed their genuine concern for social and environmental problems during the week to September 30 during which they took part in all kinds of activities. This helped strengthen team spirit through activities that required working as one team to help improve their environment.

The series of activities organized by BBVA covered the wide range of employee concerns from cleaning beaches in Turkey to raising awareness about people with disabilities in Spain and training activities to promote financial inclusion in Argentina. The Global Volunteers’ Week had direct impact and benefit for others, but also for the bank itself in its ongoing commitment to act as a responsible company and engage with the societies in which it is present.

For Lidia del Pozo, Director of Community Investment Programs at BBVA “team volunteering is one of the ways we’ve chosen to help the most vulnerable segments of the population in the societies in which our company is present, something that drives us to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

Global solidarity

In Mexico, 1,500 BBVA employees focused on reforestation activities and the upkeep of green areas as well as supporting grantees of the  BBVA Bancomer Foundation as mentors, helping them in their personal and professional development.

Collecting food and clothing, school support training, reforestation, helping out at meal centers and solidarity markets…  BBVA employees in Spain could choose among a wide range of options to take part in the Global Volunteers’ Week with organizations such as the Federación Española de Banco de Alimentos (Spanish Federation of Food Banks),  Cruz Roja (Red Cross), Fundación Theodora and the Fundación Princesa de Girona (Princess of Girona Foundation)

In Argentina, BBVA Francés worked with NGOs such as Fundación Techo (Roof Foundation) and Banco de Alimentos (Food Bank), among others. Employees took part throughout the week in awareness chats, preparing and grading foodstuffs for people in need and even financial education workshops in schools and a workshop on artistic expression in a children’s hospital.

BBVA Colombia employees gained first-hand experience of the services organized by organizations such as Hogar San Pedro Claver (San Pedro Claver Home), Fundación Esperanza de Amaly (Amaly Hope Foundation) and Casa de la Madre y el Niño (Mother and Child Home). The initiatives in which volunteers took part were focused on support above all for children and young people at risk of social exclusion. Participants could see for themselves up close how other people live and join children in activities related to education and food.

Volunteers at BBVA Continental, Peru, engaged in a number of initiatives, including “Dona una tapita destapa una sonrisa (Donate a bottle cap, uncap a smile),” a campaign  aimed at collecting and recycling plastic bottle caps in exchange for wheelchairs for inpatient children. In addition, a group ofvolunteers committed themselves to cleaning the “Los Pescadores” beach,which resulted in the collection of 120 kilos (264 pounds) of waste and plasticsin just a few hours.

In Uruguay, BBVA volunteers helped renovate several centers run by two charitable organizations and organized fun activities and games for the children beneficiaries of the Ronald McDonald McDonald Foundation. BBVA alsoawarded twenty scholarships for children to attend The Electric Academy, aninnovative training space that works to bring the education of the future to the present.

In Paraguay, BBVA opened its doors and hosted a series of “Art Workshops” intended to raise awareness among public school students about the importance of taking care of the planet by teaching them how to make money boxes from recycled materials, gathered by employees. BBVA volunteers also organized a basic financial education course for the children.

In Venezuela, among other initiatives, BBVA Provincial employees gathered toys and organized fun activities for inpatient children. Also, BBVA volunteers hosted a workshop on online fraud at the San Francisco de Sales School, to raise awareness among students about the risks of using social media websites. Also, the organizers offered some security tips to preserve their accounts, passwords and privacy.

Garanti employees in Turkey organized book donation initiatives in eight cities, threw birthday parties for beneficiaries of the Hope Foundation for Children with Cancer, and engaged in a series of activities aimed at raising awareness about the work from a number of NGOs through the organization a charity fair and a fundraiser event.

In the US, BBVA Compass employees volunteered in a number of activities, including food collection and distribution, renovation and adaptation of schools and homes and supporting financial education programs for adults. Over 2,000 employees participated in the volunteer week.

BBVA’s offices in London, Paris and Hong Kong also joined the volunteer week celebrations.

All this joint work has provided wonderful opportunity for BBVA employees to put their daily responsibilities aside and give back to their communities through charitable initiatives.