Despite the recession, the corporate community needs to continue helping society’s vulnerable said Gervase Warner, Group CEO of the Massy Group. According to their July to December 2015 Newsletter, United Way of T&T donated almost TT $1 million to Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the country.
“I just left a project called Project Care in Diego Martin where there are companies giving materials, contractors giving different skills and we have hundreds of volunteers who showed up to paint, to move stuff, to help fix Diego Martin RC School which was in a state of disrepair. At the end of today it will be completely transformed. It does not cost a lot of money to volunteer,” he said.
Warners spoke yesterday at the United Way of T&T’s National Day of Caring at the Republic Bank Staff Club, Barataria. United Way of T&T assists NGOs and Community Based Organisation (CBO’s) who are under-funded through volunteer work and donations.
Some of the $1m in donations included $150,000 which went to Bird Song, a community based organisation rooted in the steelband movement. Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA) received $200,000, Mamatoto received $127,140, the Consortium of Disability Organizations (CODO) received $120,000 while the Dyslexia Association received $150,000. Companies that contribute to United Way of T&T include the Massy Group, Atlantic, Bermudez Biscuit Company, BHP Biliton and bpTT.
Warner refused to tell other companies how much or when they should contribute, but he said many companies are making social contributions despite being hit by the recession.
“I cannot pretend to make rules or criticise anyone else as others have to operate with their own values. We have some exposure to the energy sector but it is a large diversified conglomerate, many of our subsidiaries in T&T and other countries are doing well.
“Overall our profits are down a little bit but we are still doing extremely well. So we will continue to contribute.
“There are other companies fighting for survival and one of our participant companies is in the middle of layoffs and they still participate,” he said.
Warner said large corporations had a huge responsibility to the society in which they operate and used the Massy Group as an example.
“The United Way’s office in T&T is hosted by the Massy Group. They work out of Massy’s office space. I am on the Board of Directors of United Way. I also chair the National Day of Caring Committee,” he said. He even said their corporate executives at the Massy Group are judged by how they contribute to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
“At our Group of companies our executives have the balanced scorecard method and community involvement is one of the measures on the scorecard among others like financial measures and measures around people and customers. This does not stop because we are in a recession,” he said.