Make a difference with Telus

Being zealous in doing good and giving back to local communities, the Telus family once again lends a hand to the community during its 10th Telus Days of Giving last May 21.    

Inspired by the “we give where we live” philosophy, the leading Philippines-based provider of contact center and business process outsourcing solutions partnered with Hands on Manila to conduct cleanup activities at the Cayetano Arellano High School in Santa Cruz, Manila which served as a lead up to the Department of Education’s Brigada Eskwela Program. Teachers, parents and community members worked together to prepare the public school facilities for the incoming school year. 

According to Cris Rosenthal, Telus International Philippines vice president for Human Resources, seeing the condition of Cayetano Arellano High School back in 2014 made them realize the need to go back. “How can these children sit and learn, sustain the four hours, five hours a day being uncomfortable in that situation?” she said.   

“In our view, education really has a unique role to play in our world,” stated Jeffrey Puritt, president of Telus International. Telus believes that a safe, clean and comfortable learning environment helps maximize the potential of students for learning, he shared. 

“The 10th Telus Days of Giving reinforces our commitment to the communities where we live, work and serve. Our team members who came straight to the venue from their shift and volunteered in this wonderful event bring to life the Telus philosophy that ‘We give where we live’,” he reiterated.   

In support of the company’s Days of Giving program, 2,300 volunteers extended help to the chosen community by repainting classrooms and hallways, repairing chairs, painting wall murals and rehabilitating the garden. TIP also held a workshop wherein students and volunteers were engaged in an eco-bag painting activity which was started as a part of a Teen Entrepreneurship volunteer program that began in 2015. Around 100 students worked with Telus International team members to design and produce the eco-bags. An entrepreneurship talk was also held at the last part of the session.

To date, the company’s Days of Giving program in support of the DepEd’s Brigada Eskwela program has helped an estimated 35,290 students in five Metro Manila public schools. More than 4,300 high school students attend Cayetano Arellano High School.     

“If you walk around in the school here today, you will see our 2,400 team members – every single one of them smiling, every single one of them deriving a sense of importance, a sense of community,” Puritt expounded. “It’s amplifying our sense of family in the community inside our organization,” he added.

Atty. Gianna Montinola, president of Hands on Manila, also expressed gratitude to Telus for the continuous support of their mission to help uplift the lives of Filipino students, disclosing that her group is looking forward to the continued strengthening of the partnership which started four years ago. 

For the past 10 years, the company has also helped thousands of  poor kids and families through partnerships with NGOs such as Gawad Kalinga, Bantay Bata, Bantay Kalikasan, Virlanie Foundation and Hands on Manila. – Marjaleen Ramos