EY65+more: From EY with love

“It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving”- Mother Theresa

That was the theme of EY Curaçao’s Office Day 2013, a day in which EY Curaçao chose to not only celebrate their employees but to also reaffirm their commitment to the community. During EY Office Day, a committee of employees presented “EY65+more”, a series of unique volunteer projects where all employees could choose to lend a helping hand with the aim of giving 65 hours+more back to the community. All EY-ers were invited to roll up their sleeves in support of an afterschool program, an elderly home, a foster home, a farm for persons with limitations and families all around the island. The call to action was answered immediately, as many EY-ers signed up at the first hour to join the several projects!

Many ways to give
The aim was to complete 5 community projects from November 1^st to November 9^th, but due to the rainy weather forecast the dates were extended. Yet the excitement did not vanish for a moment! Even with torrential rainfall, all EY volunteers read up on the ostrich and showed up to the first project: a reading excursion with children of Fundashon Ban Stimulá Lesamentu to the Ostrich Farm. Thanks to EY most children were able to see the animal they had studied and read about during animal month in real life.

In the meantime, even the office was being transformed. Meeting rooms were cleared for storage, as employees collected basic care items to give to 65 families in need for the holidays. An extensive package with buckets, towels and all sorts of items to pamper the body were sorted during two days, packaged with love and sealed with a personal message. These items were handed to Fundashon Mami Sa, Voedselbank Curaçao, Stichting Acute Noodhulp Armoede and a monastery.

Also not bothered by the weather was a Picasso team ready to brighten the days of approximately 65 children living at Huize St.Jozef/Rose Pelletier. Led by artist Roberto Tjon-a-Meeuw, about 21 children and several EY volunteers had a fun-filled and heartwarming day full of laughter, song, and color. The end product: this beautiful mural masterpiece they can proudly look at every day!

At Mi Amparo in Habaai, our elders also received a token of appreciation that they can take advantage of daily: a life-size checkers board to keep them active! None was happier than one of the daily visitors, Cedric, whose son happened to be a previous checkers champion. In about three hours, a team of advisors, accountants and auditors strategized to bring a board game to life. 

Building a better community

When Zorgboerderij de Savaan advertised that they needed all the hands they could use to rebuild what was left behind after their farm was destroyed for no reason, EY-ers stepped up to the plate. On an early Saturday morning, EY volunteers joined others as they cleared the old to build the new!

We always believed that when people come together they can achieve wonderful things, and in every single one of the EY volunteer projects this was demonstrated anew. Kudos to all of the EY volunteers who brought forth smiles, warmed hearts and left a positive mark by giving with all of their heart.

As a company EY has demonstrated through 65 years of excellence a commitment to making the difference for their clients, their people and their community.

THANK YOU for the LOVE EY, and we wish you 65+ many more years of building a better community.     

For more pictures of EY65+more visit: www.facebook.com/curacaocares

It was all a dream...

That's how most things start in New York, don't they? Well that is certainly how our journey started, even though our dream ultimately had nothing to do with New York. For all the accusations of being an 'impersonal' place where all you do is get lost in a crowd of strangers, New York had taught us both one thing: that no matter how busy you are running from train to train, job to job, you can, and should always find time and ways to give back! 

Precisely that, giving back, was the topic of discussion one faithful afternoon in the summer of 2011 when I, Deva-Dee Siliee and friend and now co-founder of Curaçao Cares Lysayé de Windt were sitting around the coffee table in New York with family members that were visiting. Precisely how would we give back to Curaçao, and how can we encourage and inspire others to give back?  

We both had quite some experience getting hands-on in community service projects around the world. I had rolled up my sleeves to reinvigorate the city a few times, had spent weekend-days teaching and organizing seminars for underprivileged students in New York and had shared smiles and tears with juvenile detainees in Tanzania. Lysayé had traveled the world, visiting over 10 countries, volunteering almost everywhere she went with numerous local NGO's, even if it was just for a little while.

Why and how were we able to do all of that? The answer is simple: elsewhere volunteering was made accessible, flexible but still meaningful! But when we thought about Curaçao, we were left clueless as to where we could give our time, talent and skills, and we suspected that there might be more people looking for information on volunteer opportunities finding that this information is hard to come by. 

And so the dream was born to establish Curaçao Cares, a volunteer and project management foundation. Curaçao Cares is proud to join Nederland Cares and New York Cares as an affiliate of Handson network, the largest and most successful international network of more than 250 volunteer action centers in 20 countries. Our mission is aligned with that of the network: to put people at the center of change!

Since our official establishment on October 19th, 2012, we have been working day and night (with the help of many others!) to get the engine started and to ensure that we will be here to serve our community for a long time. 

We hope that you join us on this journey, simply because change....begins with you!