Being Inclusive - Linking Diversity and Inclusion with Community Partnership Day (CPD)
For the 14th year, my company Novartis held its annual Community Partnership Day (CPD) on April 21 and, for the second year, a team of 11 colleagues joined me in linking two key initiatives – Diversity and Inclusion and CPD - by working at Frauenhaus, the local Basel women’s shelter.
The Frauenhaus provides a safe shelter for women and children who are victims of violence – physical, psychological, sexual and economic. They are taken in with their children and given room and board. The Frauenhaus team supports them through the legal processes, provides basic necessities and gets them back on their feet. One third of the women return to their marital homes, two thirds don’t. The team works closely with the police and local social services, and relies in large part on sponsorship and donations to support its work. The inhabitants there are mostly non-Swiss who frequently do not speak German or English, requiring translators to hold the most basic discussions.
At the Frauenhaus, part of our team did spring cleaning, helped build shelves and designed and completed photomontages in the main room and the offices without hammering our thumbs!. The remaining three members took the group of Frauenhaus women and their children to the Zürich zoo and luckily had a warm day with really blue skies. With a small personal contribution we left behind several vases of flowers and some chocolates for the women and children in the shelter to enjoy. The team are impressive in that they are so upbeat despite the tough work
It was a rewarding day and a real wakeup call for a lot of us. Many of the women at the shelter moved to Basel with their husbands for work and have no direct family members nearby. The Frauenhaus team makes a great contribution to our society - sad that it is needed - but good that they are there. We have already agreed we will come back again next year to continue supporting them
Disclaimer: I work for Novartis. This post represent my own view and opinion and not necessarily that of my company.
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