Citi mobilizes more than 40,000 volunteers across more than 90 countries for "Global Community Day"
Citibank Romania and Habitat for Humanity are building homes for persons with disabilities
Citi Romania volunteers in Bucharest joined more than 40,000 Citi volunteers in more than 90 countries for the company’s fourth annual “Global Community Day”.
Recognizing that many Citi employees volunteer year-round in their communities, Global Community Day celebrates Citi’s volunteer spirit worldwide on one day. Local volunteer teams will be working on a variety of projects addressing specific community needs including literacy, housing, environmental protection, nutrition, and health care.
This year, Citibank volunteers, together with their family and friends, worked for a day on the Habitat site in Izvoarele, Giurgiu county, on a project called “Building Hope Together”. They worked on building a protected house for eight persons with disabilities.
The building has 170 sq. m and is specially projected for the needs of the eight future inhabitants – it has eight bedrooms, one kitchen, a living-room and three specially-equipped bathrooms. Coordinated by the construction specialists from Habitat, the 30 volunteers isolated the inner walls with mineral wool and they assembled OSB plates, polystyrene and glass fiber mesh on the outer walls.
Shahmir Khaliq, Citi Country Officer, declares: „Citibank's involvement in the projects initiated by Habitat for Humanity demonstrates our commitment to the community. We make an effort to have a significant positive impact in the society. Our participation in the construction of this house is part of Citibank's global initiative (Global Community Day) to celebrate the involvement in our communities and a wish to increase the living standards of the people around us”.
“In order to accomplish our goal of offering decent homes to all people, we need strong and committed partners. Today, Citibank continues a collaboration that began in 2006 and it is one of our most dedicated supporters. Citi is more than a sponsor; it is a partner that implicated its employees for accomplishing Habitat’s objectives. The 30 volunteers chose to spend one day on site in order to help these persons with disabilities live decently. We are thankful to all the ones who came today on site and we are proud that Citi is one of our friends” said Ionut Raita, Program Manager at Habitat for Humanity, Romania.
The “Building Hope Together” project is financed by Comber Foundation and Habitat for Humanity Romania and is being developed with the support of local authorities in Izvoarele, Giurgiu county and of Western Union Foundation. The main objective of the project is to offer the chance of a decent community life for eight persons with serious disabilities. At the same time, this house will prove that the persons with physical and mental disabilities can live in society, without being segregated in institutions where they are frequently deprived of their fundamental rights.
In the past two years, the partnership between Citibank Romania and Habitat for Humanity made possible the development of six projects for the needy communities in Cumpana (Constanta county), Pitesti (Arges County), Oradea (Bihor County), Radauti (Suceava County), who benefited from Citibank financing and also from the implication of more than 50 volunteer employees.
Background information
Citibank has been present in Romania since 1996 and provides high-quality financial products and services to national and international companies, small and middle enterprises, the public sector, non-profit organizations and individuals.
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.
Habitat for Humanity builds and refurbishes simple, decent and cost-efficient homes, together with the people in need, whose future is seriously affected by their living conditions. The materials come from sponsorships and donations and the building is made by volunteers together with the future inhabitants. Until now, more than 1600 families in Romania and 300.000 families in 100 countries benefit from a Habitat house.
Comber Foundation cooperates with the Romanian state’s institutions and the local NGOs in order to determine the closure of the institutions in which young adults with mental and associated disabilities are living; it builds homes for young adults with disabilities; it supports the construction of houses and the development of services for children who grew up in institutions; it works on the growth of the institutional capacity of the relevant authorities in Romania in order to determine change and improvement of life standards for persons with disabilities in Romania.