Media Release: NGC Gives Hope a Home
– June 21, 2016
Last Thursday 16th June, an eager combination of 30 staff members and vacation interns at NGC, heeded the call ‘to give hope a home’ and volunteered to paint the newly-constructed home of a deserving family in Reform, Gasparillo. NGC’s Corporate Communications Manager (Ag.), Lisa Burkett, noted that, “Through this project, NGC is able to meet its mandate of creating shared value for the Company and its multiple stakeholders, with a focus on socio-economic and human development.”
NGC, via its partnership with Habitat for Humanity Trinidad and Tobago (HFHTT), has pledged to provide housing solutions for selected families over a three-year period (2015-2018) using HFHTT’s criteria, which ensures that low income earners who have a vested interest in improving their lives, are assisted.
“A project such as this allows us to promote employee involvement in our CSR initiatives through our internal volunteer RR Ambassador programme. We provide mechanisms for employees to donate their time, skills, knowledge and energy to activities undertaken by the company, especially on a team basis,” stated Ms. Burkett. Additionally, opportunities such as these allow vacation interns to gain deeper insight in to other aspects of corporate life and corporate giving.
NGC’s RR Ambassadors ‘rubbed down the walls’, primed and painted the interior and exterior walls of the two-bedroom house and also assisted in painting the iron burglar proofing. A comment made by HFHTT and appreciated by the NGC volunteers was that this house was one of the best painted houses by a corporate team in terms of neatness and precision – a testament to the skill and application of the NGC team.
The home will also be outfitted with a ceiling and floors will be tiled. When the owner, a widow with two young children, was told of this, she expressed an emotional ‘thank you’ to NGC for what has been given her young family. As a result of NGC’s support, the family now has a simple, decent, affordable, safe and secure home to call its own. By undertaking this project under the RR Ambassador Programme, NGC provided staff volunteers with an ideal opportunity to give back to the community.