More than 200 Lek and Novartis associates in Slovenia dedicated their working time today to helping others

“Community Partnership Day is a day when the employees who decide to take part dedicate the time they would otherwise spend at work to visiting and helping individuals and various organisations in the community in which they work. Every time we organise a Community Partnership Day it becomes apparent how many people in need of help value the precious time and effort offered by the volunteers at least as much as financial assistance. This is why we took great pleasure in participating again this year and helped everyone we visited.” said Katarina Klemenc Dinjaški, Head of Corporate Communications.

This year, over 200 Lek employees, together with associates from Novartis Pharma Slovenia, organised various activities. Volunteers are from all over the company, including the Management Board. They spent a day in Zbilje with the members of the Barka Association for people with mental disabilities and together with them cooked lunch and planted some flowers in the garden. Together with the members of the organisation Korak Trauma Rehabilitation Institute, aimed at people who have suffered brain injury, our associates volunteered to clean and tidy up the local surroundings. Some of our employees visited homes for the elderly in Prevalje, Mengeš and Ljubljana Vič – Rudnik (the Bokalce unit) and staged a special entertainment event, while others visited the oldest inhabitant of Prevalje and made her very happy by doing some household chores for her and cooking her lunch. Furthermore, some employees took the members of the society for mental health Šent Kočevje on a trip to Kranjska Gora. The special needs children at the Roje primary school will be taken on a day trip to the ,a href=“http://www.zoo-ljubljana.si/”>Ljubljana Zoo. In Lendava, our volunteers, together with the Lendava bilingual primary school, organised a special theme day on the subject of water. At the Department of Ophthalmology in Ljubljana, volunteers planted some shrubs as part of the environment protection Ringaraja project on the theme of “eco family”. We also remembered Lek’s pensioners and organised an internet course for them. Employees from all Lek’s locations around Slovenia donated blood.

This is the 14th Community Partnership Day organised by Novartis and during this time this initiative has become an important factor in the fulfilment of the company’s social responsibility. In Lek, this event has also become one of the most important activities related to social responsibility as it encourages employees to participate in voluntary work. The initiative directly involves the employees who donate their time and effort in order to improve the life of people in their community. This enriches both the volunteers and those who receive help.

• More than 4,500 associates across Switzerland joined in 220 volunteer projects. In the Basel headquarters area, 3,825 associates are serving in more than 200 projects, such as assisting disabled children for excursions, restoring old houses in an Ecomusée in France, supporting the Trinational Environmental Center, creating improvements in the old St. Johann railway station in Basel, and working in nature conservation projects. Elsewhere, Novartis associates raised money for a medical charity in Nyon, took elderly people on a boat tour of Lake Geneva, assisted a children’s trip to the Bellinzona castles, and cleaned up and beautified public facilities in Locarno.
• Some 350 associates in Japan worked with the Guide Dog Society for people with disabilities, spruced up a residence for families of children being treated in hospitals, cleaned parks and streets, assisted with a Novartis-sponsored orchestra concert, and raised funds for polio vaccines for children in developing countries.
• Around 300 Novartis associates in Turkey collected clothes, books and toys for children in need; donated blood through the Red Crescent; donated needed medicines to a children’s hospital in Ankara; and engaged with families of children with leukemia.
• Some 150 Novartis Egypt associates are engaging with children and the elderly. In schools, associates help students with handiwork, art projects and sports competitions. Associates donated much-needed supplies and equipment to orphanages for the disabled and shared in the children’s activities. Visiting geriatric centers, associates focused on providing companionship for the residents.
• In Bangladesh more than 80 associates have organised an all-day activity for spinal-injury patients in a rehabilitation center, as well as a school for impoverished children. Patients and children joined in arts activities, as well as wheelchair sports.
• Novartis associates in Slovakia delivered clothes, toys and books – as well as fruit and sweets – to children in a foster home in Bratislava and spent a day working on improvements to the building and grounds.
• In Saudi Arabia associates donated blood for young cancer patients at King Faisal Specialist Hospital.
• Ninety Novartis associates in Argentina will organize fun activities for children, disabled people and the elderly in several centers, and contribute the needed supplies.
• About 200 associates in Austria will provide fun, educational field trips for children and disabled persons from orphanages and schools; deliver coffee and cakes, with an afternoon of music and dance, for residents of three homes for the elderly; and replant areas damaged by storms or avalanches.
• In the West Indies, Novartis associates will take children on a field trip to the zoo in Curacao, assemble a playground in Jamaica, and organise sports and a party for Special Olympics participants in the Bahamas.
• Associates in Morocco will paint, garden and make other improvements in a social center for elderly and homeless people.