Thousands of employees of Deutsche Post DHL and FedEx are this week helping society and theenvironment through a wide range of projects as part of the two companies’ respective annual
voluntary action programmes.Deutsche Post DHL’s second annual Global Volunteer Day, which runs from September 6 to 16, isexpected to see several thousand staff as well as customers and business partners take part in 736registered projects around the world. This year’s projects cover a wide range of activities,including the remodeling of schools in South Africa, donation drives for the homeless in Russia,reading hours for children with impaired vision in India and the cleanup of nature preserves inThailand. At last year’s initial Global Volunteer Day employees in 130 countries worked onapproximately 600 projects.
“With our workforce of 470,000 people in more than 220 countries and territories, we have atremendous reservoir of knowledge and energy. We also want to use this energy on behalf of societyas a whole and make a positive contribution to the communities where we do business,” explainedChristof Ehrhart, head of Corporate Communications and Responsibility at Deutsche Post DHL. “Thevolunteer work that our employees do throughout the year is quite impressive in and of itself. Withthe annual Global Volunteer Day, we can also produce a strong feeling of oneness and createadditional motivation.”
DP DHL said the activities are selected locally by the individual divisions but are coordinatedgroup-wide to create a joint platform for all projects and align them with the overall CorporateResponsibility programmes, GoGreen (environment), GoHelp (disaster management) and GoTeach(education).
Meanwhile, FedEx today kicked off its eighth annual global ‘FedEx Cares Week’ with more than4,000 FedEx employees expected to participate donating their skills and time to valuable communityservice projects worldwide. The event serves as the formal kick-off for the annual FedEx United Waycampaign. In addition to volunteering thousands of hours each year, FedEx and its teammembers gave more than $15 million to the United Way in 2011.
In the US, FedEx Cares Week projects will take place in more than 40 cities, including Atlanta,Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, New York,Newark, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Paul/Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. In Europe,Middle East and Africa, employees from eleven countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, France,Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom)will take part in diverse projects. Other countries where activities will take place includeBrazil, Canada, China and Thailand.
“FedEx Cares Week gives FedEx team members across the globe the opportunity to make a differencein their own backyards,” said Tabatha Stephens, manager of Corporate Contributions & Volunteersat FedEx. “A passion for volunteerism is ingrained in FedEx’s corporate culture, and FedEx CaresWeek is just one of the many ways we join together to give back.”
Andrew Self, vice president, Marketing and Communications, FedEx Express EMEA, added: “FedExCares Week is a testament to the generous spirit of our employees who believe that giving back tothe community both as individuals and as a corporation is the right thing to do. And theirattitude is infectious; friends, family members and corporate partners are eager to learn how theytoo can support our volunteer efforts.”
