du fosters a strong culture of volunteering amongst its employees, and recently held a ceremony to honour the company’s top volunteers, who contributed the most throughout 2014. The ceremony was hosted by Ibrahim Nassir, Chief Human Capital & Administration Officer, and Hala Badri, Executive Vice President, Brand and Communications, who presented the volunteers with an award of appreciation.

Last year, 208 volunteers from du along with 210 business partners and family members contributed to a total of 2,546 volunteering hours spread across 23 activities. The top volunteers were chosen based on the number of hours they dedicated to improving the lives of their community and the environment they live in. Activities throughout the year including UNICEF wellness-focused school roadshows, Give and Gain day events, Mawaed Al Rahman Iftar distribution during Ramadan, a day with the children at Al Noor Training Centre for Special Needs, planting trees with Goumbook, participation in Dubai Municipality’s Clean Up the World initiative, a career workshop at the University of Dubai, and more.

Hala Badri said: “Volunteering is an integral component of our corporate culture, and we are very, very proud of the number of hours our colleagues dedicated to numerous causes throughout the course of 2014. It is a pleasure to have such committed individuals in our company, who are the ambassadors of volunteering and are true role models for our community to follow.”

According to an employee survey conducted by du in 2014, 98percentage of respondents state that they want to become more actively involved with community giving. Building on this enthusiasm, and expanding on the activities that the company held in 2014, based upon the four pillars of its CSR strategy – environment, education, entrepreneurship, and UAE heritage, culture and society – du has initiated a new policy for 2015 that will expect all employees to volunteer for a minimum of eight hours to benefit the UAE’s environment and community.