Naše Mesto 2016 (source: Courtesy of Pontis Foundation)
More than 10,000 volunteers from 131 companies will “go on a date” with the cities they live in on June 9 and 10.
As part of the biggest central European corporate volunteer event, Naše Mesto (Our City), they will help 233 non-profit organisations, social care houses, schools and kindergartens to improve the environment they work in.
“The barriers in society concerning selfless help have been ‘broken’,” said Michal Kišša, programme director of the Pontis Foundation, the organiser of the event, as quoted in a press release.
The number of volunteers is increasing every year, helped because companies “encourage their employees not to be indifferent to the places they live in”, he added. Moreover, many employees can relax during the activities and even consider them as part of teambuilding.
“During the past 11 years Naše Mesto has become a traditional part of the calendar for many non-governmental organisations, city boroughs, schools and kindergartens,” Kišša said, adding it is an important event for them.
Various activities across Slovakia
One of the activities which volunteers can sign up for is to give help to the NGO Imobilio, which helps integrate seriously disabled people. With the aid of volunteers and without any subsidies it is building an education and development centre in Bratislava to enable these people to study at university.
The volunteers can take boats to help clean up the Little Danube, revitalise the Bratislava city forests and sort out clothes for people in need. They will also clean up the premises of the Cvernovka building and parking place and create a composting site there. Volunteers will also help save endemic plant species on Devínska Kobyla.
Another type of activity includes the preparation of programmes for children and spending time with seniors.
In Košice, volunteers will help repair the fence of the free time centre, clean up the premises of the local League against Cancer building, and paint climbing frames at the local kindergarten. One of the activities will also include the construction of a sensory pavement.
The volunteers in Zvolen will, for example, help repair the children’s playground, while in Stránske they will repair the local Church of St Helena. In Hurbanovo, the volunteers will dispose of the illegal landfill and in Žilina they will plant some flowers at a social care house.
A traditional part of the volunteer event is also a special activity for company CEOs. This year, they will help at the primary school and kindergarten for hearing impaired children on Drotárska Street in Bratislava.
