Barclays Seychelles targets youth to ‘Make a Difference’ |08 November 2013

Barclays Seychelles employees are this year joining the rest of Barclays employees globally in sharing their personal or professional skills to improve enterprise, employability and financial skills of young people, with the ultimate goal of  ‘Changing 5 Million Young Futures’.

The 2013 Make a Difference (Mad) activities in Seychelles started on November 4 and will end on the 16th.

Over 10 different initiatives are being undertaken by the Barclays colleagues. They range from preparing meals for the homeless in Victoria, to creative craft workshops for the disabled, careers counselling and curriculum vitae writing for secondary and post-secondary students, to educational but fun activities for the Rainbow Project children and engagement with small entrepreneurs.

Many of the activities are being run in partnership with local non-governmental organisations (NGO) partners such as Care (Committee for Awareness, Resilience and Education against Drug and Substance Abuse), Compassion Foundation, Nou La Pour Ou, Love and Care Association, Sawe (Seychelles Association for Women Entrepreneurs), and local schools. The activities are taking place on Mahe, Praslin and La Digue.  

Barclays Bank Seychelles managing director Rakesh Jha said: “Make a Difference Day is the single biggest driver of our employees volunteering globally. As well as achieving a sense of fulfillment from an individual perspective, part of being a responsible corporate citizen is sharing skills that empower youth and communities to subsequently acquire new skills and become self reliant. Actively participating in Make a Difference Day is one of the best ways we can demonstrate our commitment to achieving this.”

Barclays Africa has targeted the youth in the launch of its Make a Difference (Mad) campaign for this year, with the goal that by 2015 about 5 million disadvantaged young people would have acquired skills that could change their lives.

The commitment and investment in youth seek to enhance their employability and increase the financial literacy skills of this generation.

The flagship programme is called ‘Changing 5 million Young Futures’. This is the Barclays group’s flagship employee volunteering programme.
 
In 2012, more than 17,000 Barclays group employees from 34 countries volunteered their time to benefit their local communities. Barclays Africa contributed almost half the number of employees.

Gideon Serfontein, head of citizenship at Barclays Africa, said: “This bold commitment is critical to help young people on the African continent to overcome social and financial challenges they face in their lives. We will achieve this in partnership with our employees, non-governmental organisations, charities and our customers.”