Global Days of Caring: The Culture of Volunteerism at Alcatel-Lucent

Making the world a better place by volunteering for a social cause is on the bucket list of many. However, finding the time and taking the plunge doesn’t always happen. It is easy to coast along and never quite get around to volunteering, which is why the social responsibility arm of Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation, created the Global Days of Caring initiative.

Global Days of Caring is company-wide and was created as an easy entry point for getting involved in the social programs supported by the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation and promoted volunteerism during the month of July.

The Global Days of Caring initiative has four goals:

1. Bring the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation closer to Alcatel-Lucent employees
2. Increase visibility to Alcatel-Lucent Foundation initiatives and activities
3. Foster a culture of voluntarism
4. Create a sense of pride and engagement amongst Alcatel-Lucent employees.

Programs featured during Global Days of Caring included ConnectEd, a partnership with World Education to prepare 13,500 young people from marginalized communities in Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, France and India for the world of work, and the Passeport Avenir mentoring program.

One of the Alcatel-Lucent employees who participated in the Passeport Avenir program was Dianne Sforza, who mentored a young woman named Stephanie.

“I believe the one-on-one style of the program combined with the continuity of our working together have contributed greatly to Stephanie’s much improved command of the English language,” noted Sforza in the foundation’s Volunteer Handbook 2012.

Other Alcatel-Lucent employees also have felt the reward of volunteering their time.

“Being able to say I changed something in the lives of others, gives meaning to my being here beyond simply looking after myself,” said Riham Khairy, an Alcatel-Lucent employee working in Egypt. “For me, it changes my life from being purely self-centered to being something with meaningful to others, too.”

The Alcatel-Lucent Foundation supports many social causes around the world, including a street children project in Egypt, a school of digital literacy program in Spain, a return to school program in Germany, and a migrant school student initiative in China, among many others. These are examples of the prime mission of the Foundation which as stated in its Volunteer Handbook 2012 is, “To respond to today’s global challenge of digital inclusion and sustainability, focusing on providing innovative programs for underserved communities across the world that enable youth, and particularly young women, to access educational and life skills programs,”

Global Days of Caring initiative is just one way Alcatel-Lucent is showing around the world that it takes its responsibility to be a model corporate citizen as a top priority, and that giving back is ultimately rewarding for everyone involved.

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