Close to 2,000 officers and employees of the Land Bank of the Philippines joined the government bank’s celebration of Volunteerism Month this December with various activities held all over the country.
Earlier this year, the Bank institutionalized its employee volunteerism program dubbed “VOLUNTEERific” through which its nearly 8,000-strong employees are enjoined to volunteer in activities all-year round.
This is also in compliance with the Civil Service Commission’s Memorandum Circular reiterating Republic Act 9418 or the Volunteer Act of 2007, which mandates national agencies to run their own volunteer programs.
Since the launch of VOLUNTEERific this year, Landbankers have conducted about 100 different activities all over the country from Northern Luzon to Southern Mindanao. These include feeding programs, tree-planting activities, coastal cleanup drives, relief operations, and various outreach programs.
Landbankers from the La Trinidad and Baguio branches held a “Lunch for a Cause” for the construction of Natividad chapel in Ambiong, La Trinidad, Benguet. Head office-based employees distributed school supplies to children at Saclag Settlement Farm School in San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro under the “Tulong Eskwela” Outreach Program.
About 700 volunteers from the Land Bank head office joined the annual Manila Bay cleanup along Roxas Boulevard and Estero de Abad in Adriatico, Manila, a tributary that leads to Manila Bay.
Hundreds of other Landbankers partnered with non-government organizations like the Girls Home of the Manila Boys Town, Kabataang Inyong Dapat Suportahan (KIDS) Foundation, Kindness to Indigent, Deprived and Sick (KIDS2) Kids Foundation, Fostering Education and Environment for Development (FEED) Inc., Bahay Aruga (a free halfway house for pediatric cancer patients), and Couples for Christ-Gawad Kalinga Cagayan de Oro, among many others.
Feeding programs were also conducted in various schools and barangays nationwide, particularly in Sorsogon City, Dipolog, Iligan, and Famy, Laguna.
Landbankers have several other activities scheduled in the coming months.
Since 2014, Landbankers have also donated a portion of their salaries to fund the Bank’s Gawad Patnubay scholarship program for college students taking agriculture-related courses. The program has so far financed the education of 121 students from all over the country.
The VOLUNTEERific program forms part of Land Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives to further nurture the culture of volunteerism within the organization.