Zurich celebrated its fourth Global Community Week by caring our community

Zurich Insurance Group has a long standing of history of supporting communities worldwide through local community programs. Global Community Week highlights and celebrates the activities, time and expertise the Group contributes to communities around the world.

Zurich Insurance (Hong Kong) supported and echoed this worldwide initiative by organizing a series of volunteering activities throughout the Global Community Week (1 – 5 June 2015). Here comes the highlight of these activities, through which we demonstrate our corporate citizenship, add value to our communities and celebrate our ongoing contribution to communities:

• Charity Food Sale – Our employees did not only prepare their homemade food but also sponsored food purchased from two selected local social enterprises namely Bread Bunch and Hong Chi Gourmet Central Kitchen. A total of HKD50,000 raised during the food sale was donated to Oxfam to support its salvation work for the devastating earthquake in Nepal recently.

  

• Clothes Drive – We collected nearly 200 clothing items for The Salvation Army from the staff of our Hong Kong office which would be donated.
  
• Hour of Love – The leadership team from across the Asia Pacific region and the Head Office in Zurich donated a total of HKD15,000 to prepare gifts for the elderly in Hong Kong. In addition to the donation, they also wrapped 160 gifts and drew 160 greeting cards which will then be distributed to the elderly homes by Zurich volunteers during a visit in July this year.

  

• "A day with Food Angel" – Zurich employees spent two sweaty afternoons in a hot kitchen and prepared over 900 meals. Some of the meals they prepared were then delivered in person to a community centre for senior citizens in Chai Wan while the rest were delivered to beneficiary organizations by Food Angel. It was a good opportunity for our colleagues to learn to treasure our food and the urgent needs to reduce food waste.

  

• Soap recycling – In the Soap Recycling activity, we helped sanitize and recycle over 1,200 pieces of slightly used soaps and other sanitation amenities collected from the hospitality industry. The soap will be sent to families and schools in disadvantaged communities around the world to save thousands of children!

  

• Coastal Cleanup Challenge – Over a hundred of Zurich employees, their families and business partners spent a meaningful morning under the fierce sun cleaning up the Sok Kwu Wan beach on Lamma Island. A shocking 3,059 pieces of garbage, which weigh a total of 52 kilograms, were collected in just a morning. It was a great chance to learn through experience that we are responsible for our own environment, and that everything is connected – the land, the sea and the air we breathe. This awareness is an important step towards behavioural change for waste reduction.

  

During the Global Community Week, the volunteering spirit our employees embrace truly demonstrates our commitment to the community where we live and work. We look forward to joining hands with you and our business partners in the near future to contribute to our community together.