Indian Newslink 15th Sept 2016 Digital Edition

16
SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
BUSINESSLINK
Shutters go down to open hearts for community work
Ansuya Naidoo
BNZ staff recently spent
a valuable day providing
translation services
for the Henderson
Lincoln Business Association
as part of the Bank’s annual
‘Closed for Good’
volunteering day.
On August 31, 2016, all BNZ
stores and offices were shut so
that more than 3200 ‘BNZers’
could get out into the community
to help on hundreds of projects
around New Zealand.
In Henderson (West
Auckland), BNZ staff fluent
in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu,
Cantonese and Mandarin, spent
the day as translators allowing
the Association to forge direct
connections with their linguistically
diverse members.
Meaningful engagement
The team was accompanied
by Constable Mandeep Kaur
(Ethnic Communities Relations
Officer at Waitemata Police
District) and other members
of the local Police to engage in
meaningful conversations with
business owners around crime
and safety.
Project Manager Robbie Ellis
said that the project was enor-
mously successful at a number
of levels.
The team visited more than
200 businesses on the day
and collected both contact information
and data on issues
Henderson businesses are
facing.
The Henderson Lincoln
Business Association is now
using the information collected
to broaden its network as
well as to understand where
efforts should be focused for
business owners who may
not have English as a first
language.
“We found that local business
owners were extremely
happy that they could tap
into the resources on offer
now that the language barrier
had been broken down. It
was also enormously valuable
for us, as it always is, to
spend time in the community
talking to people about the
challenges they are dealing
with. Being able to do this in
peoples’ language of choice
made it even more rewarding,”
Robbie said.
Community Projects
This year more than 530
community projects were
completed on August 31,
2016.
BNZ Chief Executive
Anthony Healy said that he
was delighted with the projects
in which the bank staff
BNZ staff engaged in community work at Howick Historic Village on August 31.
got involved and that the scale
of the day was demonstrated in
Auckland alone where BNZ staff
worked on 181 projects.
“Community organisations provide
vital services in their local
area and they are always
stretched for resources. This is a
small way in which we can leverage
the scale of BNZ to help, by
getting stuck in to maintenance
or gardening, providing business
guidance on marketing and
budget plans to running financial
literacy and scam savvy workshops,”
he said.
“All our people receive two volunteer
days a year and embrace
the chance to get out there and
help across every sector of the
community – from supporting local
schools or their town Plunket
group to helping with environmental
clean-up efforts and running
workshops at the Citizens
Advice Bureau,” Mr Anthony
said.
Largest Single Day
‘Closed for Good’ was first run
in 2009.
It is unquestionably the largest
single day of corporate volunteering
in New Zealand. Since its inception,
BNZ staff have provided
140,000 volunteer hours of time
on over 2500 projects.
They have also delivered hundreds
of financial literacy workshops
on money basics, general
financial literacy or being scam
savvy and more than 200 skilled
projects where staff use expertise
to help solve a problem or plan
across areas such as human resources,
finance, marketing, digital
and social media strategy.
It was a bold decision made
seven years ago to shut the bank
for the day.
But volunteering is one of the
unsung heroes of the economy
and the bank knows that the
groups asking for help are often
the engine rooms of our communities
and make a huge impact
in New Zealanders lives.
Ansuya Naidoo is Head of Indian
Community Banking at BNZ, Title
Sponsor, ‘Best Large Business’ and
‘Supreme Business of the Year’
categories of the Indian Newslink
Indian Business Awards 2016. BNZ
was also the Title Sponsor of the
Sixth Annual Indian Newslink Sir
Anand Satyanand Lecture held on
July 25, 2016.
Indian Newslink Indian Business
Awards Ceremony will be held on
Monday, November 28, 2016 at Sky
City Convention Centre, Auckland.
Tickets priced at $150 plus GST
and tables seating ten persons at
$1500 plus GST per table are now
available. Please call (09) 3910203
or 021-836528; Email: editor@
indiannewslink.co.nz
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