Every year more Novartis associates in Slovenia volunteer in local community

“Community Partnership Day is a day when associates who wish to participate can take some time which they would otherwise spend at their jobs to visit with and help individuals and various organizations in the communities where they work. Every year that Lek holds Community Partnership Day, we can see that a lot of people who need help feel that the time and effort spent by our volunteers is at least as valuable as funding. Therefore this year again we were very happy to join and to help all the people who we visited,” said Marjan Novak, member of the Lek Board of Management.

This year, more than 180 Lek associates together with associates from Novartis Pharma in Slovenia held various events. Warm meals were cooked for Ljubljana’s homeless and served to them in the afternoon at the Parish Caritas in Štepanja vas, at the homeless people’s shelter on Poljanska street and at the Franciscan church. They spent a day with clients from the Barka Association in Zbilje and cooked lunch and planted flowers in the garden with them. They helped through painting and spring cleaning at the Crisis Center for children and youth in Ljubljana Bezigrad area. They visited the Home for the Elderly in Prevalje, the Home for the Elderly in Mengeš and the Vič-Rudnik Home for the Elderly in Ljubljana, and put on a special day for them including an entertaining social program. Children from the Hans Christian Andersen Daycare Center were treated to a fairy-tale day. Associates from all Lek sites around Slovenia gave blood, some visited the clients of the Korak Trauma Rehabilitation Institute where they landscaped the surroundings and helped in some other activities, as well. At the Billingual Primary School II Lendava they participated in workshops around the World Earth Day, where children spoke about nature, its beauty and value and learned how to preserve it.

This year marks Novartis’ 13th Community Partnership Day, and in this time the initiative has become an important part of the company’s Corporate Citizenship. It has also become one of the most important parts of Lek’s Corporate Citizenship, since it encourages associates to volunteer their time and effort to help make other people’s lives better. This enriches both the volunteers and everyone for whom the help is intended.

• More than 3,800 associates across Switzerland are expected to participate in 215 volunteer projects. In the Basel area, associates are serving in nearly 200 projects, such as taking disabled children to an amusement park and cooking at a battered women’s shelter and an orphanage. In Nyon, associates are creating a puppet theater for autistic children, donating blood to the regional Red Cross, and assisting young people facing difficulties. Associates in Cham will be supporting activities at a kindergarten, taking a trip with retirees and doing forestry work.

• In China, more than 1,100 associates are participating in weeklong activities. Beijing associates will train elementary school students in emergency rescue skills. Along with giving blood and donating clothing, Suzhou associates are warning people against the danger of consuming expired medication. Associates also organized events to raise interest in chemistry among school children.

• Across Germany, 750 associates are “giving back” this week. Novartis volunteers are involved in more than twenty projects, including outings with disabled children and seniors, a management workshop at a student café, and creation of a playground area for a daycare center and an elementary school. Close to 400 associates in Marburg are organizing a sports fair at a boarding school for disabled children, fixing kennels at an animal shelter, painting walls in a children’s hospital, and planting a “Novartis forest” to make up for the damage caused by Hurricane Kyrill in 2007. Associates in Grosswallstadt will offer storytelling at a school for disabled children and a school for the blind and will create a new hallway designed to serve visually impaired children.

• More than 300 associates in Spain are cleaning up a dog shelter and a nature park, donating blood, entertaining at a children’s hospital, and donating clothes to support a local charity.

• In Australia, associates will plant trees in a local national park and carry out renovations for a local community center, including tidying, planting gardens and painting.

• Consumer Health associates in Canada will again partner with Community Living Mississauga, a local not-for-profit organization that provides support to individuals with disabilities. Associates will help through painting, spring cleaning, gardening, arts and crafts.