Featuring the participation of employees and their family members, the Volunteer Festival works with local community members and non-profit organizations to support a variety of projects including ones supporting education and digital learning initiatives. This year’s program saw the involvement of over 12,000 volunteers in more than 30 countries around the world – that means an average of about 400 Samsung employees took part in volunteer activities in a given day in the month of October.

Samsung Electronics America (SEA) saw regional offices across the United States participate in the company’s eighth Day of Service, an initiative that sees employees put work aside for the day and dedicate their time to local charity partners in the communities where they live and work. More than 3,600 employees took part this year, working to support initiatives benefiting residents in areas near SEA offices. Since the inauguration of the initiative in 2014, SEA employees have contributed over 128,000 hours of community service as part of the Day of Service program.

Employees from countries across Samsung Electronics Latin America (SELA) took part in an initiative to further education on cultural and ethnic diversity and inclusion. The program, titled SELA eSTEMos Juntos (“Let’s be together”), was a collaboration with Plan International harnessing the power of technology to educate over 700 children from disadvantaged public schools across Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.

Samsung Electronics Nordic AB (SENA) recognized that, for a newly arrived immigrant, local language can be a huge barrier to entering the job market and fully integrating oneself in the society. Therefore, SENA collaborated with the Jarfälla Municipality in eastern Sweden to create a unique new project called eSFI (Swedish for Immigrants). Together with the local community, Samsung staff members provided digital learning support and training to help language learning seem like less of a hurdle thanks to a new digital language learning model.

In Italy, more than 50 Samsung Electronics Italy (SEI) employees took part in SAVE for Rome, a project dedicated to providing meaningful refurbishments to a local elementary school. In a collaboration with Retake Rome, volunteers and students renovated the entrance to the school in an effort to foster a learning environment that is as positive and welcoming as possible.

Meanwhile in Turkey, Samsung Electronics Turkey (SETK) worked with some 210 local children and their parents on a Stop Cyberbullying initiative to increase awareness around the effects of online behavior and social media on young lives.

In China, employees from Samsung offices in Xi’an, Suzhou and Tianjin volunteered their time to teach students at a local partner school how to best use electronic devices. Furthermore, the volunteers also held classes on more recreational topics, such as poetry reciting and airplane modeling, much to the students’ delight.

This year marks the third year of the company’s Samsung Love and Care program designed to enrich underprivileged communities across Southeast Asia and Oceania. In Myanmar, 40 employees of Samsung Electronics Myanmar  joined forces with the Kyimyindaing School of the Blind in Yangon. The volunteers worked together on community projects to enhance the quality of life at the school such as wall painting, serving lunch, organizing donations and providing basic medical check-ups to students and local youths.

Samsung Electronics Thailand also brought 53 volunteers to help enrich the ecosystem of Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, the first Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand. Volunteers created a check dam for water conservation, made artificial saltlicks which would serve as food sources for wildlife animals, as well as made seed bombs, and planted them in the forest. All of these activities would also help prevent global warming.

Samsung Volunteer Month was founded in Korea in 1995 to increase Samsung employees’ contributions back to their local communities and has been flourishing across international offices since 2011. It is one of a wealth of programs established by Samsung to promote sustainable social and local development – all for a better tomorrow.

On an otherwise ordinary Friday in October, Samsung employees participated in the company-wide annual Day of Service, creating something extraordinary and lasting. The day-long event covered 61 activities in New Jersey, New York City, Washington D.C., North Texas and Mountain View, California, across 50 local charity partners. Since the 2014 launch of Day of Service, U.S.-based Samsung employees have contributed nearly 128,000 hours of community service through the program. Among this year’s activities were youth education and sports, food distribution to people in need, and workforce re-entry coaching. Samsung made participation easy, and the takeaway for many employees – the joy of giving back – was nothing short of profound.

New faces at headquarters: Students from Parsippany Hills High School arrive at Samsung Electronics America, in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey for a day of career mentorship from employees, as the eighth company-wide Day of Service gets underway. The students are involved in Junior Achievement of New Jersey, a non-profit organization that helps young people develop the skills they need to succeed in today’s economy.

As part of the company-wide Day of Service, Tim Baxter, President & CEO of Samsung Electronics North America (second from left and center) and Samsung employees spend an afternoon with young people at Covenant House New Jersey, which provides food, shelter and immediate crisis care to homeless, runaway and trafficked youth between the ages of 18 and 21. “At Samsung, we are committed to supporting programs im our local communities and we are dedicated to serving our local charity partners in the communities where we live and work,” said Baxter. “Covenant House helps homeless teens re-establish themselves and seeing the hope and promise within these teens is truly inspiring.”

Samsung employees also worked with Table to Table at their weekly mobile produce market in Newark. Table to Table is a food rescue program that collects prepared and perishable food that would otherwise be wasted and delivers it to organizations that serve the hungry. Surrounded by grocery bags filled and ready to be brought home by the markets participants, Emily Force (above), the Director of Corporate Engagement and Marketing Programs at Table to Table, displays the kind of nutritious food that’s distributed. “We are so grateful to Samsung employees for coming to Newark and volunteering their time” Force says. “Samsung is a huge company that can make a big difference in people’s lives when partnering with organizations like Table to Table.”

Samsung’s Michelle Ng (left) and Sarabpreet Singh (right) feed the resident chickens at the Table to Table Newark Mobile Market, after sorting and bagging prepared and perishable food for the hungry. “Table to Table helps feed more than 700 families, and I’m proud to be just an iota of that effort,” Singh said. “Thanks to Samsung, we can get out and do what we are passionate about – give back to the communities we live and work in.”

Irwin Vogelman, of Center for Food Action, in Saddle Brook, N.J., guided another team of Samsung employees to sort and bag food headed to individuals and families in need, many of them children and seniors. Vogelman, who’s worked with Center for Food Action for 18 years, says community support is essential to the organization delivering on its mission to some 5,000 clients every month, most of them the working poor. “Samsung’s Day of Service enables us to get the food out to the community faster,” Vogelman says. “We’re not heavy with staff, so we have to depend on hundreds and hundreds of volunteers each week.”

Samsung’s Vallerie Walsh prepares to sort and bag food that’s headed to people in need, at the Center for Food Action, in her home town of Saddle Brook, N.J. “It means a lot to me to give back to my community,” Walsh says. “I’m so glad that Samsung does this every year.”

The sheer joy of learning, teaching and giving back was evident everywhere at Women Rising, a Jersey City, N.J.-based organization that helps women and their families move from crisis to self-sufficiency with domestic violence services, permanent housing, workforce development and youth and family education and services.

“People really do need help to overcome barriers that seem impossible,” said Michelle Crossan, Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Samsung Electronics America (right). “It makes us proud to work for a company that gives us the time to help change people’s lives.”

The women behind Women Rising (clockwise from right): Rosemary Nwabueze, Director of Community Economic Development; Roseann Mazzeo, Executive Director, seated; Ilene Singh, Job Developer, and Linda Nation, Manager of the Workforce Development Training Center. As part of its many offerings, Women Rising provides help with job searching, workplace readiness and industry-specific training for a variety of industries, from hospitality to bookkeeping. “Learning about Samsung employees’ career paths is motivational and inspirational for our clients,” says Nwabueze. “With the hands-on resume and interview sessions, they’re making one-on-one connections and learning valuable skills.”

Several groups of Samsung employees also spread out across New York City to give back – some taking to the soccer field with America SCORES New York, an after-school program in under-resourced communities that combines soccer, poetry and service learning. “We spend a lot of time in the office working with tech, and it’s great to come out and make a different kind of impact,” says Samsung’s Cleveland Bonner (pictured above).

Samsung employees in Dallas, Texas joined North Texas Food Bank in their fight against hunger – sorting, boxing and bagging food for local residents in need. The North Texas Food Bank and its network of 200 partner agencies provide access to more than 190,000 meals each day for hungry children, seniors and families across 13 North Texas counties.

As education is a prominent focus for many of Samsung’s philanthropic initiatives, partners like Mi Escuelita Preschool benefited from a large group of Samsung’s Dallas employees that helped them get ready for Halloween. Mi Escuelita Preschool teaches English to children from all cultures and prepares them for academic success.

And over in Mountain View, CA, Samsung Electronics America employees worked with My New Red Shoes, to sort shoes and create custom cards for the children receiving fresh kicks. The organization provides new shoes and clothes for low-income, homeless and immigrant children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

At the end of the Day of Service, employees across Samsung’s U.S. locations expressed their feelings of a job well done and the personal satisfaction of knowing that how they serve has ripple effects throughout their communities. “I think the whole community benefits. That’s what Samsung is all about,” said Darlene Kumar at the Food Bank for New York City.

This project is also a part of the annual Samsung Global Volunteer Festival held in October, a broader approach for Samsung employees to positively impact communities around them.

Source: US Newsroom

Now in its 23^rd year, the program features the participation of some 10, 000 Samsung employees and their family members, local community members, and non-profit organizations from offices in 20 countries. Volunteers give their time to aid various projects, including digital education and coding classes and lessons on the environment.

For the second year in a row, the company continued its regional Samsung Love and Care program, which is designed to enrich underprivileged communities across Southeast Asia and Oceania, particularly with regard to education and the environment.

Company volunteers in Thailand teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to restore forests and forage lands in Kui Buri National Park, Prachuap Khiri Khan, as part of a royal initiative to make the land shared by humans and wild elephants a peaceful place for both to co-exist. The volunteers lent a hand by weeding forage fields, making saltlicks, and improving water resources in the national conservation site.

In Cambodia, volunteers from Samsung’s office in Phnom Penh worked with Future Light Orphanage of Worldmate (FLOW) to organize interactive educational activities for local children and teach them how to use educational mobile apps.

Dedicated company volunteers in Malaysia collaborated with the Industry of Relations Division and the Ministry of Higher Education to improve the living conditions for the residents of Kampung Ulu Tual, Kuala Lipis. Samsung organized an expedition to the Orang Asli village to provide upgrades to the village’s infrastructure and spread cheer through fun, educational activities.

In the Philippines, Samsung joined hands with the WWF once again to organize restoration activities at the Ipo Watershed, which supplies freshwater to millions of Metro Manila residents and neighboring jurisdictions. Company volunteers lead programs centered around the environment, community & health, and high-quality education.

Samsung offices in several Chinese cities also partook in the volunteering efforts, including a soap making class with 70 autistic children in Suzhou, and several educational programs for children and the elderly in TianJin.

In several states across the USA – including New Jersey, California and Texas – Samsung volunteers visited 55 health, education and environmental non-profit organization partners to run a plethora of helpful activities, such as art and math classes, trash collection, and making lunch boxes for those impacted by recent disasters.

Meanwhile in Brazil, Samsung employees paid a visit to the Gabi Institute, which supports low-income children, to give digital education classes where children learned how to use the latest high-tech products such as the Samsung Gear VR and Samsung Tablets.

Just north of Brazil, roughly 150 volunteers from Samsung Panama teamed up with local non-profit organization Eco Creando, to pick up trash along the Malecon beach; volunteers were able to fill approximately 400 trash bags thanks to their efforts.