Japan and Singapore Volunteering Update

by Haruka Maruno & Esther Nai, Community Engagement Coordinator

Salesforce.com employees in Japan and Singapore office have dedicated their time to a variety of volunteering activities.  In Japan office, Cloudforce Japan and BizAcademy have finished successfully.  And, staff from the Singapore Office spent a day working with children from the AWWA Smiles programme.

セールスフォース・ドットコム 日本とシンガポールオフィスのボランティア報告です。日本では、Cloudforce Japan とBizAcademyを開催！　また、シンガポールでは、社員がAWWA Smiles プログラムの子どもたちと植物園を訪問し、ペットボトルを再利用したガーデニング体験など、笑顔あふれる一日を過ごしました。

GardensASIA visit with AWWA SMILES kids –  Singapore

Salesforce volunteers in Singapore spent a day at Gardenasia with children from the AWWA SMILES program in December 2012. The students met with staff from salesforce.com who provided much needed interaction, learning and time with a group of children with special needs. The children got to walk around the little garden of herbs and spices, create little gardens using recycled products and even tried their hands at fishing!

“It was an experience I learnt so much from, definitely time well spent. It was so heartwarming to see how happy the kids were at simple things such as wanting to see the fish.”

 

“I felt really blessed to be able to spend time with these kids, it was priceless to see a smile on their faces. It has taught me to appreciate my own family more.”

Cloudforce Japan　2012

We successfully finished the Cloudforce Japan event on the 6th December 2012. It was the biggest event ever for us and there were over 9,000 attendees who enjoyed the event.  In the keynote session for NPO/NGO’s, 120 participants learned about Salesforce products, support systems and more about our partners. They also saw a demo from NPO ETIC. ETIC are one of our best NPO users and questioned the attendees to learn more.  Participants also enjoyed the opportunity to build new relationships and network with NPO/NGO’s at the Event. At our Volunteer Booth, we held a Christmas Gift Wrapping event for mothers and babies in Tohoku with our 1/1/1 partner JOICFP and delivered 1754 presents. Marc Benioff, General Colin Powell and Toyoda-san joined our volunteering activity, too!

At the same time, we produced an innovative Tweet Donation campaign and brought 611 warm messages to them.　As the event’s highlight, we invited 20 TOMODACHI Initiative students from Tohoku area. We could see the students smiles after the session. Salesforce.org staff took the opportunity to meet and interact with many of the attendees, introducing them to the “Social is Business” ideal. This was a great way to show how we can make an impact to do more and build better organisations in the world with the great opportunity that Social is Business presents.

2012年12月6日、Cloudforce Japan開催！Foundationのブレイクアウトセッションでは、非営利団体向けに開発されたNonprofit Starter Pack日本語版について、またその導入・活用のための各種サポートプログラムのご紹介やNPO法人ETIC.の活用事例を紹介し、約120名の皆様にご参加いただきました。また、イベント会場内にボランティアブースを設置し、1/1/1パートナーのJOICFPと協働で被災地の赤ちゃんとお母さま1754名分のクリスマスプレゼント梱包を実施。Twitter募金キャンペーンでは、東北の皆様へ611通のメッセージを届けることができました。また、東北から招待したTOMODACHIイニシアチブの高校生20名が、特別セッション「イノベーションとグローバルリーダー」に参加しました。

BizAcademy with Bridge for Smile – Japan

On December 27th, salesforce.com staff from the Tokyo office held BizAcademy with the NPO, Bridge for Smile. They support young people who have grown up in children’s homes and are about to leave to live on their own. In total 5 high school students attended our program with several sessions designed to support their dreams and help in driving their careers. In the session, employees provided the students with a tour of the Tokyo office, a business manner class and training on brain storming to develop their presentation skills for job interviews.

2012年12月27日、今年度2回目のBizAcademyを東京オフィスで開催。児童養護施設のこどもたちの自立支援に取り組むブリッジフォースマイルとパーナトーシップを組み、5名の高校1～3年生に参加していただきました。ボランティア社員によるビジネスマナー講座やブレインストーミングの練習が行われ、自分の意見を発信する力を育てることを目指した半日間のプログラムとなりました。

“It was a great opportunity for me to have discussions with the high school students since usually I have no chance to talk with students. We had a wonderful time discussing their concerns about the future, their dreams, what they are interested in, etc.　I hope this seminar will help them in some way in their future!” (Yasuko Saito)

普段高校生の方と接する機会がないので、今の学生が何を考えていて、どういう悩みがあって、どんな夢があるのかをディスカッションできた大変よい機会でした。セッションで実施した内容が将来的に彼らの役にたてればとても嬉しく思います。（斉藤泰子）