CIO volunteers leave their places of work for some days to support social proyects

CIO Company of the Western Islands is participating in the International Corporate Volunteering Week for the second consecutive year to contribute to the integration of groups at risk of exclusion. CIO employees left their places of work for some days to accompany those who need the most help, along with those people’s families.

Volunteers from the company participated in the work carried out by both the Tenerife Association Working for Mental Health (ATELSAM) as well as the Association of Family and Friends of the Penitentiary Centre’s Therapeutic and Educational Unit (AFAUTE-CA).

The company’s Corporate Responsibility Department is promoting this initiative whose aim is to offer employees the possibility to dedicate part of their time, skills and talents to non-profit causes and organisations. This marks the eighth year of the International Corporate Volunteering Week, which is the largest and most effective display of this type of business practice in the world.

Over the past week several employees from the Bahía del Duque Hotel, which forms part of the CIO Group, travelled to the headquarters of the Tenerife Association working for Mental Health (ATELSAM) in Guía de Isora. During the day they accompanied a group of people with mental illnesses and their monitors into the association’s organic garden in Guía de Isora to one of the workshops being held there on promoting reinsertion and social integration.

“Getting to know and participating in the integration work carried out by ATELSAM has opened our eyes to a different reality and made us aware of the sacrifices of people who suffer from schizophrenia and the enthusiasm with which they fight to recover a full, normal life. The organic garden project represents a new beginning for many as well as the possibility for training to gain access to the working world. The work carried out by the monitors is impeccable. Without a doubt, we would repeat the experience and encourage others to take up volunteering” explained Carmen Pérez, manager of the drugstores at CIO’s Bahía del Duque Hotel.

For their part, the other CIO volunteering employees were integrated into the Association of Family and Friends of the Penitentiary Centre’s Therapeutic and Educational Unit (AFAUTE-CA). A human resources expert from the company gave a job hunting workshop to the 86 prisoners of the Tenerife II Therapeutic and Educational Unit (UTE), who are looking for a second chance, and the volunteers also participated in a fun-filled day with the inmates.

According to Mónica Romeu, the company’s Corporate Responsibility manager, “for CIO, volunteering is a way to enter into direct contact with groups that need more support. Through our CR department, we support various NGO projects and associations in which our employees also participate, and the International Volunteering Week is undoubtedly an extraordinary opportunity to reinforce our vocation as a company committed to society”.