Page 11 - Sphere No.10 (Dec 2003)

A group of HWL volunteers shows that great things can come from small beginnings.
By Sophia Wong
I t all started almost by accident about
two years ago. Unbeknown to each
other, many Hutchison Whampoa
Group (HWL) staff members were qui-
etly giving up their spare time to join various
volunteer organisations helping less privileged
members of the Hong Kong community.
On weekends and holidays the volunteers
would go out and assist an elderly person or
offer comfort and friendship to a lonely
hospital patient. Their only reward was the
knowledge that they had played a small part
in brightening someone’s day.
Then, in 2001, HWL’s Group Human
Resources Department took the initiative to
introduce these like-minded “Good
Samaritans” to each other.
It was an appropriate time as the United
Nations, recognising the tremendous contri-
bution that volunteer work makes to health
worldwide, had declared 2001 the “Interna-
tional Year of Volunteers”.
Noting that many members of the
Group’s extended family were involved in
C O M M U N I T Y
ALL TOGETHER
S PHERE
129