CSR Snapshot features some of the most recent corporate social responsibility activities that Syniverse has participated in to help make a positive impact on the communities where we live and work.
What was the activity?
On Nov. 1, a group from Syniverse’s Hong Kong office paid a visit to the Caritas Jockey Club Integrated Day Care Center for the Elderly to talk, interact and brighten the lives of senior residents who are cared for there.
What organization did the activity support?
The Caritas Jockey Club Integrated Day Care Center for the Elderly was established in 1979 and provides a range of healthcare and social services for seniors, including day care, residential care, and nursing and rehabilitation. Each year, the center gives services to over 17,000 senior people, including the serving of more than 430,000 hot meals; the organization of 5,300 social, developmental, recreational and volunteer groups; and the recruitment and training of 14,000 volunteers.
How many Syniverse employees participated?
Seven colleagues took part. The visit was organized by our Employee Association, a group responsible for leading charitable and extracurricular activities in communities where Syniverse offices are located. Each year, many Syniverse Employee Associations around the world identify charitable organizations in their local areas, and then get the input of the office’s employees to select a few charities that the office would like to support.
What did the Syniverse team do?
We spent several hours getting to know about 50 residents and trying to brighten their day. We found out about their lives, told them about ours, and had drinks and snacks with them. We also played some games, worked on some crafts and sang some songs with them. In addition, the leaders of the Center gave us a tour of the facility and explained all their services. As part of this, they gave us an orientation that offered tips and best practices on the best ways for us to interact with the residents. Since this was the first visit by everyone in our group to the center, we were concerned about building relationships with them in the best way and making the most of our visit of a few hours. With this orientation, the leaders of the Center helped ensure that our visit was productive!
What was the most rewarding part of this activity?
One rewarding part was the opportunity to make different human connections with each of the seniors. For example, our team played a game of flying chess with one group of seniors. Although this is a familiar game to everyone on our team, the seniors we were playing with each had a different level of alertness and understanding, so understanding their responses was a little confusing for our team at first. But once we took some time to learn how each senior was interacting, we felt a lot more comfortable and realized how smart each of them were in their own way. Even though some of them seemed to be slow or unclear in their responses, in their hearts they were clear and smart with their actions. We just needed to take time to understand their rhythm and be able to appreciate their individual characteristics. Through this activity, we felt that the seniors really appreciated us and gained something special from our visit. We will never forget our afternoon with them, and we look forward to building on this experience by participating in similar activities in the future.
Fanny Tang is a Customer Success Advocate and works at Syniverse’s Hong Kong office.
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