Leading outsourcing services provider TELUS International Philippines (TIP) recently held their annual TELUS Days of Giving, in partnership with Hands on Manila for the Department of Education’s Brigada Eskwela program. The event served as a prelude to Brigada Eskwela, a school cleanup program that prepares public school facilities for the coming school year.
TIP returned to Cayetano Arellano High School in Santa Cruz, Manila, a secondary site refurbished by the company in 2014. This year, 2,300 volunteers repainted classrooms and hallways, repaired chairs, painted wall murals and rehabilitated the garden. A social enterprise workshop was held, engaging students in an eco-bag painting activity. Around 100 students partnered with TELUS International team members to design and make the eco-bags as part of Teen Entrepreneurship, a program launched as a volunteer activity in TIP in 2015. Proceeds from the bags sold after the workshop will be given to the participating students. An entrepreneurship talk was also conducted at the end of the session.Â
This was TIP’s fourth time supporting the Brigada Eskwela program, and to date, these Days of Giving activities have helped 35,290 students in five Metro Manila public schools. More than 4,300 high school students attend Cayetano Arellano High School.
“We believe that in a safe, clean and comfortable learning environment, students’ potential is maximized.Through this activity, we hope to provide a venue that will encourage better academic performance,†shares Jeffrey Puritt, President of TELUS International.  “TELUS International Philippines’ 10th TELUS Day of Giving reinforces our commitment to the communities where we live, work and serve.  Our team members who came straight here from their shift and volunteered in this meaningful event bring to life the TELUS philosophy, ‘We give where we live’.â€
TIP held its first TELUS Day of Giving in 2007, when team members built homes in the TELUS- Gawad Kalinga Village. For the past ten years, the company has helped thousands of families, disadvantaged children and students through its partnerships with non-government organizations such as GK, Bantay Bata, Bantay Kalikasan, Virlanie Foundation and Hands On Manila. Â
“I am truly grateful to TELUS International for continuing to support our mission to help uplift the lives of the Filipino students. We are looking forward to the continued strengthening of the partnership which we started 4 years ago,†says Atty. Montinola, President of Hands on Manila.