December 5th: celebrating volunteerism.
December 5th is the International Volunteer Day, and this is a great opportunity not only to celebrate volunteerism in all its facets – but also pay special tribute to people’s participation in making a difference locally and globally as well. All colleagues in SAP Hellas, Cyprus & Malta are looking back to 2014 and we feel extremely proud for the contribution of our volunteers in making a difference and engaging to create social cohesion, sustainable development and innovation.
Our volunteers supported 4 organizations through mentoring, coaching and personal work. In 2014:
1.we continued our cooperation and supported TEDxAcademy Athens event and
2. the 2nd Make Innovation Work competition, organized by American Chamber of Greece. This competition invites young entrepreneurs to submit their ideas, targeting to boost Greek Entrepreneurship and the Greek Economy and create new jobs. This year, the competition attracted 107 business plans from individuals and legal persons from Greece and from the global Greek Diaspora. SAP Hellas sponsored the competition and additionally offered free licenses to SAP Business One solution to the short-listed ideas.
3. Furthermore, we worked together with Ashoka Greece and supported the 1st Changemakers competition in Greece. Our Managing Director was one of the competition’s judges and a mentor to one of the start-ups which won. We also had a Design Thinking session, where the startupers were introduced to an innovative way of thinking and decision making. We also donated SAP Business One solution to xorafaki.gr, the winner of the category “Strengthening communities through environmental solutions”
4. Another initiative regarding innovation and entrepreneurship we supported is the Hellenic Entrepreneurship Awards. This program aims to create opportunity for both experienced and budding entrepreneurs by providing winners with the resources they need to get a new business started. One of the winners, “Anassa Organics” is already in the process to implement SAP Business One.
Following our commitment to social cohesion:
1. 40 colleagues joined the 2014 SAP Marathon team and our runners ran 398km supporting Doctors Without Frontiers organization and their fight against Ebola. Each runner donated 1euro; for every km he/she ran and SAP Hellas doubled the amount.
2. Our cooperation with SOS Villages continued this year as well, and in November we had 38 volunteers, dedicating their Sunday morning and visiting the organization’s warehouses, where they tided/arranged a great amount of donations.
3. Finally, we feel very proud because in 2014, SAP Hellas has created a blood bank, with the help of Evangelismos Athens’ hospital and the participation of 35% of our employees.
On 5 December, 2014 join us in recognizing all volunteers’ commitment and applaud hundreds of millions of people who volunteer to make change happen!