INFICON Social Days
Making a difference in the community
The INFICON team in Cologne recently organized this year's Social Days, a corporate social responsibility initiative aimed at making a difference in the community. Over two days, around 30 INFICON employees took the opportunity to take part in various activities to benefit three local organizations.
The Familienzentrum Bilderstöckchen is a multicultural daycare center for children aged 2 to school age (many with disabilities) and offers child and family counseling. The focus there was on a range of activities, including garden work such as loosening the soil, leaf sweeping, weeding and fence repairs. The team also helped clean up the basement. Some volunteers also had the spontaneous opportunity to play with the children and read stories to them. The head of the center was very pleased about the children's books donated by the families of the INFICON team in Cologne.
At the Therapiezentrum Bonn, the second team focused on garden maintenance, cleaning wheelchair-accessible vehicles and various craft activities. The Bonn Therapy Center is a residential home for adults with physical or multiple disabilities, providing a home for around 40 adult residents. Most of the residents are severely disabled and confined to a wheelchair. Our volunteers were warmly welcomed into their home by the residents.
The second day of the Social Days took the INFICON team to the AWO Marie-Juchacz Zentrum, a large multicultural center for inpatient care, short-term care and day care. The center also includes apartments for seniors. The INFICON volunteers fulfilled a big wish for some wheelchair-bound seniors: a walk through the nearby shopping center and accompanied and supported them. In the afternoon waffles were baked and enjoyed together.
The contacts and conversations with the residents and staff of the facilities deeply touched the INFICON volunteers. It's heartwarming to feel how much joy we can bring to people when we give them attention, compassion and support. As the social institutions are suffering from a massive shortage of staff, the help of volunteers is urgently needed to carry out the additional work required.
And our volunteers, who came together from different areas of the company, got to know and appreciate each other in a completely different way in this unusual context and had a lot of fun doing the activities together.
We would like to thank the Kölner Freiwilligen Agentur e.V. for their support in arranging these wonderful Social Days!
The work done supports the facilities in a very concrete and tangible way and shows that INFICON remains committed to giving back to the community and making a positive impact on people's lives.
