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Archive -Seychelles

Busy social weekend for Barclays Bank |20 November 2013

It was a busy weekend for Barclays Bank as its staff indulged in various voluntary activities around the country.

The activities started on Friday afternoon with a talk on entrepreneurship and business creation delivered to entrepreneurs and young people on La Digue.

On Saturday, added to a day spent with orphans at the Foyer de Nazareth, the Barclays staff teamed up to paint the Plaisance secondary school and rehabilitate the school compound, as well as, with the collaboration of the Committee for Awareness, Resilience and Education (Care) against substance abuse organise a day out for children at the NSC multipurpose hall.

According to Barclays, the company’s staff is encouraged to be involved in voluntary work and to put its knowledge and skills to the good development of children.

Pascalina Monthy, head of the bank’s Small, Medium Enterprise Business (SME) Unit explained that the activities fell within their ‘Make a Difference Day’ (MaDD) programme, whereby between November 4 and 15 of each year, different units from the bank organise different activities.

She explained that if the La Digue activity was aimed at unlocking youth potential, the one at the Foyer de Nazareth consisted of creating a reading corner for the orphanage (see separate article below).

At the Plaisance school, the bank’s aim was to create a cleaner and more education-friendly atmosphere for the students.

Across the road at the NSC hall, the event had been called the ‘Rainbow Festival’ as it brought together recently created Care ‘Rainbow Clubs’ from La Retraite and Cascade primary schools as well as Mont Fleuri primary and secondary. If the club is normally for primary school pupils only, the Mont Fleuri students have requested that they remain members after moving to secondary level.

According to Care director Robert Ah-Weng, the ‘Rainbow programme’ which currently exists in the four schools is an early intervention programme aimed at identifying difficulties which can eventually lead to social problems.

“The programme is a combination of courses added to physical, educational and reach out activities which inculcate values in children. The message is that whatever you are, you can grow up to be a productive and positive citizen,” Mr Ah-Weng said.

At Cascade, a new dimension has been added to the programme whereby a mentor is attached to and offers each child personalised protection. The mentor, who can be a teacher, relative, family friend or any member of the community, sees his/her protégé regularly and helps with home work, delivers advice when necessary and assist in resolving social problems.

On Saturday, a total of 96 children took part in sports and traditional activities with the objective of team building. These included football, volleyball, handball, tug of war, badminton, mini tennis and relay competitions as well as skipping rope and 7 stones.

The children, who also performed poems and songs, did not compete as schools but mixed with others and with Barclays and school staff.

Students, parents and teachers present affirmed that the ‘Rainbow programme’ had brought a change in children’s behaviour in terms of interaction, team work and responsibility.

 However, they would like to see more parents getting involved alongside their children. They also wish that other organisations follow Barclays Bank’s example and come forward to help children.


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