ACCENTURE Philippines has partnered with non-government organizations in launching various initiatives to support the most vulnerable communities during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company teamed up with Caritas Manila, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and Philippines Business for Education (PBEd) to roll out programs that would help alleviate hunger and uplift health and well-being, livelihood and education of communities in the country.
Lito Tayag, managing director at Accenture Philippines, on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, said Accenture has committed P240 million to implement various programs as its way of reaching out beyond its employees.
“This is on top of the additional corporate and employee giving efforts to help the communities address challenges brought about by the pandemic,” he said.
Programs
For Caritas Manila, Tayag said the organization will be overseeing the distribution of gift vouchers to over 180,000 Filipino families nationwide to assist them in their everyday essentials and a six-month feeding program for 5,000 malnourished children in communities in the National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby cities or NCR Plus.
For PBSP, the organization will focus on livelihood programs that aim to equip communities with entrepreneurship and technical vocational skills. It aims to provide livelihood training and assistance to about 14,000 families and close to 1,300 individuals through its programs such as Mask4All, Super Carinderia, and Kada-Uno: The Hunger Program Hope Fund in selected NCR+ cities and provinces in Visayas and Mindanao.
Moreover, PBSP said it aims to provide entrepreneurship and technical vocational skills training to more than 3,000 individuals through the organization’s ancillary partner organizations such as Plan International, Save the Children and Leonard Cheshire Disability Philippines Foundation.
To help plug learning gaps brought about by the pandemic, Accenture Philippines also inked a partnership with PBEd in launching Kiddie Learning Train, a volunteer-based community program that aims to teach 1,000 Kinder to Grade 3 public school students and bring them up to speed with reading, math and science curricula. The program includes the distribution of 1,000 tablets to students and teacher-facilitators to ensure continued learning even remotely.
Cebu is the pilot area for the Kiddie Learning Train.
“As a responsible business, Accenture remains committed in making a positive impact in communities in the Philippines during these challenging times. In the true Filipino spirit of ‘bayanihan,’ we stand together with our partner organizations in continuing to do our part in making a lasting and inclusive impact for communities in the Philippines,” said Tayag.
Employees’ welfare
Prior to reaching out to communities, Accenture has been fully supportive of its employees, especially at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic by making their safety and wellbeing a top priority.
“We have implemented some significant initiatives for them, including the Covid-19 vaccination program, which we recently started and which will also cover their dependents. We have also expanded our healthcare insurance coverage, including Covid home care and mental health programs, and we have provided one time work from home enablement reimbursement for our people,” Tayag said. (KOC)