Tenth anniversary: Global Volunteer day – Making the world a better place

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“Action, not words” – with this slogan DHL Freight is participating once again in the Global Volunteer Day (GVD). This group-wide initiative animates many thousand employees to engage themselves voluntarily in local and charitable projects around the globe. Ten years of Global Volunteer Day – this stands for ten years of embodied social responsibility. Taking care of people in need, supporting socially disadvantaged youth, building shelters for destitute people, looking after asylum seekers or further environmental projects – the possibilities to commit oneself are almost endless. The three pillars of the group-wide strategy for sustainability offer a topical orientation within this context: GoHelp, GoGreen and GoTeach.

Making kids smile – GoHelp

For instance, a team in Turkey worked in close collaboration with the local cancer foundation for children called KAÇUV. Since May the DHL Freight employees visited hospitals around the Istanbul and Izmir areas. They spent time with about 70 sick children and their families, played or painted with the little patients.

Protecting nature – GoGreen

Other teams took on the environment as a topic, like the branch in Denmark. Personnel of all four divisions DHL Aviation, DHL Express, DHL Freight and DHL Global Forwarding worked hand-in-hand. They planted 2,138 trees altogether, one for every staff member who worked with them during the year 2017 and 2018.

Promoting education – GoTeach

Another example comes from Estonia. The local DHL Freight staff invited kids of fellow employees to join them at their place of work. The first-graders got DHL branded school satchels for their school start.

Helping is contagious

Many thousand employees are engaged to make the world a better place. Last year more than 100,000 eployees around the globe gave more than 400,000 hours of voluntary work for nearly 3,000 social and environmental projects.
The Volunteer Day has been instigated in 2008 by co-workers in the Asia-Pacific region. Only three years later colleagues all around the globe participated in the activities. In addition the Global Volunteer Day was expanded in 2013 to projects not limited to a specific date, but spread out over the whole year.  "Social and environmental engagement is integral to our corporate strategy, and we're very proud that employee volunteering - along with the diversity of the projects themselves - has grown so steadily over the last several years," emphasizes Christof Ehrhart, Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications and Responsibility at Deutsche Post DHL Group.