Boldr’s commitment to the community is driven by the personal desire of our team members to contribute, participate, and support local causes and advocacies, which is why we engage and empower our global team members’ own local initiatives on a monthly basis. From volunteering in local food banks, supporting local agro-economies, reducing our carbon footprint, or making employability training accessible to job seekers, we’re starting a round-up of all team-member-led activities. Here is the round-up for August and September.
Manila, Philippines: Celebrating the graduation of AMV-Gems Heart scholars
Boldr hosted the AMV-Gems Heart Scholars’ Graduation Party in the Manila office. Seven scholars graduated from senior high school and will all be pursuing college education in the upcoming school year. We celebrated their success with the Boldr executives, their Boldr mentors, and fellow scholars. The program included two activities: pass-itive, where papers with the scholars’ names were passed around and everyone wrote positive messages about each other; and, Build-A-Tower, where the students got to test their teamwork, strategic thinking, and patience. All 13 scholars who joined us were treated to a hearty lunch and each graduate received a certificate, gift voucher for school supplies, and a personal gift from our CEO, David Sudolsky.
Cape Town, South Africa: Creating a fully inclusive space for preschoolers
Boldr partnered with Chaeli Cottage Preschool to create a fully inclusive space in which preschoolers can learn by playing together. The preschool has a total of 21 students, 10 of which have disabilities. There are 3 teachers and 3 therapists (occupational therapist, speech pathologist, and physiotherapist) who give them proactive support. Children start at age 3, then go on to Grade 1 in schools that cater to their specific needs. Early Childhood Development is an under-valued, under-estimated and essential phase of every child’s education, more so for children with disabilities. Because we don’t want money to be the barrier that denies them access to a quality education, most of the children with disabilities’ fees are subsidized.
Cape Town, South Africa: Hosting a skills workshops for grade 10 and 11 learners
Our Boldranians in Cape Town hosted an informal panel discussion about the opportunities available for learners within the BPO industry and which areas of study would be beneficial. This skills workshop was attended by team members from IT, Service Delivery, Client Success, and Talent Acquisition. Our Boldr SA Country Director, Pete Eickhaus, spoke to the youth about the importance of being agile and learning all you can from the opportunities you’re presented with. What started as a workshop about skills development organically morphed into a discussion around leadership, overcoming adversity, and the importance of tenacity within the workplace. This was followed by lunch with the learners and an opportunity for them to approach team members to ask further questions.
Cape Town, South Africa: Supporting an organization to help fund their food kitchen
Arise is an empowerment group for women who have lost their jobs during COVID-19, Using their existing skills (knitting & sewing), they create items and sell them to earn an income for themselves. During the pandemic, they saw great suffering in their community, especially in the form of hunger and unemployment, so they started a feeding scheme with their small income, to provide a meal to residents within their community. In addition, they began teaching other women and youth how to knit and sew, so they can also create an income for their families.
Boldr supported Arise by donating knitting needles, a knitting machine, pots for cooking, a gas stove and wool to help them generate a larger income, which will be spread across their feeding scheme, skills development plan and their families. They were able to run an additional feeding scheme using their new pots and gas stove which fed more community members than before.
We have also contracted them to knit Boldr merchandise, which we will buy from them once completed. The proceeds will be used to buy supplies for their next feeding run.
Manila, Philippines: Converting and upcycling plastic waste into sustainable housing materials
In an effort to combat environmental degradation, Boldr partnered with The Plastic Flamingo (PLAF) to help tackle marine plastic pollution through collecting, recycling, and upcycling plastic from commercial establishments. PLAF collects all types of plastic from various collection points, the Boldr Manila office included, and ships the collected plastic to their warehouse, where they segregate and condition the High-Density Polyethylene Plastic Type (HDPE), Low-Density Polyethylene Plastic Type (LDPE), and Polypropylene Plastic Type (PP) plastics and transform them into Eco-Planks. These Eco-Planks serve as piles and pontoons to secure habitats above rising sea level, or as emergency shelters for populations hit by disasters. Last September we collected 51.6 kg worth of plastics. This was diverted from the ocean and landfills, then upcycled into plastic materials for building sustainable shelters.
Tacloban, Philippines: Distributing school supplies through Streetlight Philippines
Since August 2019, Boldr has been providing the scholars of Streetlight Foundation with internet allowances and school supplies. In August 2022, Streetlight distributed school supplies to 116 students from grade school to college level. Each student was given an envelope with basic school supplies, notebooks, school shoes, a tumbler, a lunch box, a backpack, and a set of school uniforms. This initiative was led by our Tacloban-based team members: Mia Nicole Menez, Anton Niño Raquel, and Mheanne Negros.
Many parents struggle to provide their children with school needs. Boldr has played a part in providing over a hundred students with the resources they need to succeed in the upcoming school year. Though we made significant progress, we have only scratched the surface here. As long as there are people in need, we work tirelessly to make the world a better place, one community at a time.
Cape Town, South Africa: Teaching sustainable agro-based livelihood to primary school students
Our Boldranians from South Africa ran with a veggie patch initiative at HJ Kroneberg Primary School in September. This is a community project to celebrate Spring and to give back to the community.
Boldr donated veggies to support the school’s feeding scheme and to teach the students how to groom a garden as a sustainable agro-based livelihood. A feeding scheme is a globally recognised social protection tool designed to reduce hunger and improve nutrition. It also serves to alleviate the burden of worry from poor caregivers who are unable to provide enough food for their children.
Merida, Mexico: Training on writing a successful resume
Geraldine Talent, Boldr Mexico’s Acquisition Management Associate conducted an in-person resume-writing workshop for job seekers. Nine participants of the workshop improved the content and visual elements of their resumes to increase their chances of scoring an interview, or moving forward in a screening process. After the workshop, participants were invited to put their improved resumes through the open roles in Boldr.
While these are only brief accounts of some of the activities Boldr is involved in, we share our successes and our initiatives here to inspire our global teams, as well as fellow companies who feel compelled to pursue ethical outsourcing initiatives, as well as economic or social efforts to uplift the communities around them.
