Cathay Pacific's CSR getaway

Cathay Pacific's CSR getaway
International airline proves tourism and
corporate citizenship can go hand in hand

For Cathay Pacific, any opportunity is ripe for corporate citizenship.

Cathay Pacific showed that spending a weekend getaway on an island paradise can also be a chance to help out. While recently visiting the scenic island of Olango, Lapu-lapu City, employees from Cathay Pacific Cargo Philippines, U-Freight Philippines, Vascor Cebu, Centurion Security Agency, TGC, Kwe, DHL and YAS also planted 1,000 mangrove trees with the grade one pupils of POO Elementary School.

The activity is organized by the company with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) to help restore the denuding mangroves in Olango Island. PBSP aims to conserve Olango's marine resources by planting more than 25,000 mangroves in a year with help from corporate sponsors and volunteers.

The activity also aims to teach the pupils on the protection of the coastal environment by involving them in the planting of mangroves.

Aside from helping the environment, the company also helped improve the education standards of POO Elementary School. Cathay Pacific Manager Camila Taylor, Centurion Security Vice President for Finance Jasmine Pages and DHL Vice President for the Visayas and Mindanao JC Cergneux led their employees in distributing school supplies to the pupils, which include bags, notebooks, pencils, sharpeners and crayons.

“We are very happy that they really spent their time to come to our school and give school supplies for my child. Now I can save more money to spend for his other needs,” said Cheryl Fernando, 28, mother of 6-year-old Rainier.

For Rainier, the school supplies are a heaven-sent.

“I never had this much school supplies before, with this kind of quality. I didn't expect people to help my mother buy school supplies for me because we live very far from the city (of Lapu-Lapu). I thank them for helping us; now I know I can study better because I have notebooks and pencils I can use for writing notes and doing my assignments,” he said.

Aside from the school supplies, the employees also sent personalized greeting cards for the children to encourage them to study hard and engaged in story-telling with the children. Books and other reading materials were also donated by the employees for the school's library.

Taylor said that the company will continue to look into more venues for social development projects in Cebu.

For more photos of the event, you may visit PBSP's Photo Gallery.