OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2012. More than 700 employees of Citi in Russia and the CIS together with their friends and family have joined 100,000 Citi volunteers in 92 countries worldwide for the seventh annual Citi Global Community Day. Following tradition, the volunteers focused their efforts on providing assistance to children’s institutions as well as helping out the elderly as a part of Citi’s jubilee philanthropy project called 200 Happy Elderly Folk, reported the press-centre of Citibank.

Citi employees organized 25 social projects in the 12 cities where the bank has a presence in Russia. For the volunteers, who regularly participate in such projects throughout the year, this day provides an opportunity to feel a sense of comradery with colleagues who are eager to lend a helping hand to the needy.

Citi Country Officer for Russia and Citi Division Head for Central and Eastern Europe, Zdenek Turek said: “Global Community Day represents a culmination of the volunteer movement within Citi, a movement which is ongoing and active outside the bounds of this annual event. Citi, a company with a 200-year history and its established traditions, fully encourages and supports the volunteer initiatives of its employees, which is an important aspect of the bank’s corporate social responsibility. I sincerely thank all of our employees for participating in this project, for their kind heartedness and selfless efforts.” 

In Moscow 10 projects were carried out on Global Community Day. They included trips to hospital nursing care units and to veteran organizations as well as personal visits to elderly people who live alone and are in need of basic supplies, personal attention and care. Volunteers also helped out children’s institutions, such as the Kolychevo Orphans Boarding School, Downside Up’s Early Intervention Center for children with Down syndrome, the Sunny Circle rehabilitation center for children with autism, and the Here and Now summer camp for disadvantaged children, among others.  

In St. Petersburg Citi employees along with friends and family purchased essential products for veterans living at the Boloshevrudinskaya Hospital and visited elderly people. They also organized festivities for children from the Child in Danger center and the Kalinin District Center for Social Assistance for Families and Children.

Employees of the Nizhniy Novgorod branch organized a trip 230 km outside the city to a nursing care unit of the Karpukhinskaya Hospital, bringing essential items for the ailing elderly patients and replacing the hospital’s old windows.

At the goodwill center near Ryazan, a team of volunteers brought and assembled new beds and mattresses. In the city’s central park they built a new children’s playground, installing swings, benches, sandboxes and flowerbeds, and concluded the day with a fun celebration for children.

In Ufa volunteers purchased products and delivered them to the addresses of 60 elderly folk who live alone and need assistance and attention.

Volunteers in Samara stop by for a visit with the elderly residents of the nursing care unit at Samara Municipal Hospital No.3, bringing not only gifts but also new wheelchairs, nightstands and beds, which were assembled for the residents.

At a nursing home for the elderly and disabled in the Volgograd region, volunteers renovated the auditorium and organized tea and snacks with the residents.

In Rostov-on-Don, volunteers organized festivities for children of the Bataisky Orphanage, taking them shopping at a children’s clothing store to make sure they had proper summer apparel, followed by a stroll around the city and visit to the cinema.

Employees of the Novosibirsk branch visited the municipal nursing home for the elderly and brought packages with essential goods for all of the residents.

At an orphanage in Kazan, volunteers helped renovate the facility. They put up new wallpaper, laid linoleum and painted the ceilings, getting the rooms ready for the children’s return from summer camp.

Employees of the Krasnodar branch travelled to an orphanage 180 km outside the city, bringing new computers and then teaching the children how to use them.

In Yekaterinburg volunteers cleaned up and landscaped the territory of the Ordzhonikidze nursing home for the elderly and disabled, and then organized tea and snacks and sang karaoke with the residents.

Citi volunteers in Ukraine visited an orphanage in the town of Vasilkov (near Kiev), where they helped clean up the premises, did some repair work inside the facility and organized festivities for the children. More than 60 volunteers joined in the effort.

In Kazakhstan more than 50 Citi volunteers brought gifts to children at an orphanage, where they also helped with repairs in the cafeteria and worked to tidy up the grounds.