Staff Reporter –
Demonstrating their community spirit, a group of staff from ANZ Bank spent a day at a charity home in Auckland on Friday, March 31, 2017.
The ANZ men and women, representing a cross-section of ethnicities and cultures through their ‘Indian Networking Group,’ dirtied their hands painting the exterior walls and cleaning the main hall of Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust, located in Mt Roskill.
Impressive Initiative
It was a part of the ‘ANZ in the Community Campaign,’ through which the Bank encourages its employees to undertake tasks at a venue of their choice to promote community service for a day every year. As well as rendering valuable service as volunteers, the Campaign also demonstrates commitment of ANZ and its staff to various communities.
This is in addition to community work that many of them undertake on their personal initiative outside their working hours.
As reported in these columns from time to time, all ANZ staff have one work day each year, to help a local organisation or charity, collectively spending more than 15,000 hours in their communities.
Leader Hetal Jani said that the Indian Networking Group is a part of the Bank’s ‘Diversity & Inclusion Initiative,’ keen to reinforce ANZ’s continuing effort in supporting the Indian community in New Zealand.
Combined Effort
“We wanted to utilise our time and efforts in to doing something worthwhile for the Indian community and therefore approached Bhartiya Samaj, as they are a not-for-profit organisation engaged in serving the Indian community.
“We had perfect weather, were full of enthusiasm and energy and overall it was a very rewarding day for all of us to be able to make the difference. We hope that people visiting the community hall will appreciate the clean, new look,” she said.
Inspiring thought
Rani Nalam, a member of the ANZ staff, who always contacts us for suggestions, went a step further by engaging a builder known to her to visit the Bhartiya Samaj premises earlier and help establish the quantity of paint, brushes and other materials required for their day out doing voluntary work.
Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust Founder-Chairman Jeet Suchdev said that the hall had not been painted for more than ten years,
“We are grateful to the ANZ team for their valuable time and efforts. We rely on the younger generation like them to take the initiative and help,” he said.
ANZ staff also got to interact with a few senior citizens present on the day.
-From a Report by Devika Ganjoor-Erickson, Marketing Manager (Marketing & Consumer Strategy) ANZ Bank.
