A work of heart

MANILA, Philippines - In Tondo, kids released from detention to BK-Restore Youth Home listened in surprise as a Thomson Reuters employee admitted to them and his coworkers that he was once a “troubled youth”. He presented himself – now employed by a multi-billion dollar company that employs over 50,000 people and operates in more than 100 countries – as a result of welcoming rehabilitation and education. With better choices, he said, any one of these kids can someday “break out” like him.

Inspiring scenes like this were multiplied in “Volunteer for the Community Day,” simultaneous volunteer events in seven sites around Manila. Celebrating Thomson Reuters Manila’s anniversary recently, around 500 employees put in over 1,000 volunteer man-hours.

At halfway home TuKLASan Center in San Juan as well as Baseco Compound in Tondo, street children paired up with employees for Math and English tutorials and group singing. Partnering with both Kythe Foundation and ChildHaus, employees sat down with children with chronic illness such as cancer for storytelling, coloring books, arts and crafts.

 “I made a new friend in Mark, a cool seven-year-old who likes to draw and tell jokes. He reminds me of my younger self except that he is a lymphoma stage-four cancer patient at ChildHaus and lives every day to the fullest. But then again, maybe I should too,” said Xandra Galang, training specialist at Professional Legal.

“Community in ‘Volunteer for the Community Day’ refers to both our external community of fellow Filipinos, and internal community of Thomson Reuters employees,” said Raoul Teh, senior site officer for Manila. “Externally, employees donated blood to the Red Cross; cleaned and segregated trash at the Quezon Memorial Circle; and were ‘big brothers/sisters’ to kids who used to live on the streets, who struggle with illness, or who have had trouble with the law. Internally, young people signed up and stepped up to be team leaders, and the shared experiences with co-employees from other business groups proved to be a powerful bond.”

Peter Buenaseda, human resources director, said, “In HR, we say employees are engaged when they go the extra mile. In this employee-volunteerism initiative where 100 percent of the participants said they would happily do it again – be ates and kuyas to street kids and children living with cancer, or segregate waste with their own two hands in a public green space – the engagement is very personal and, as they say, ‘a work of heart.’”