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Bicol Phase II...
for lack of better words, i'm posting here Sir Ben's email/report to all the Bank employees on our Bicol relief and rehabilitation project (i'm proud to say that i'm part of both). the first part of the email is Sir Ben's message to the entire team. certain parts are omitted for confidential reasons.
Sir Ben is the Bank's SVP HRD who stood as the Head of the entire project.
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Dear Team
Please be advised that I released a report to the whole Bank on our Bicol Relief and Rehabilitation efforts last night. This report should bring closure to these activities. It was also done to raise the bar of interest in social responsibility, to inspire our colleagues and of courseto inform them of what you did with the Bank's and their donations!
I apologise to those whose pictures were not carried in the report. This is due to system's limitation. IT and PAF are doing something so that more people will be able to read and see what you did in Bicol by tomorrow.
Whilst these activities end, I trust that our friendship and memories will last us a life time and that our shared ideals will live forever.
Mabuhay kayong lahat!
Best regards to everyone,
Ben
Sir Ben's Bicol Report Dear Colleagues
I am pleased to report the following on our Bicol Relief and Rehabilitation Efforts for the victims of Typhoon Reming:
1. Funds:
*omitted
2. Relief Efforts (15-17 Dec 06)
We delivered around 10 tons of relief goods consisting of 1,000packs of blankets, corned beef, noodles, bottled water plus 60 boxes of goods which were donated in kind such as used clothes, rice, sugar, noodles, canned sardines and blankets. Packing medium was a 12 liter pail covered by a small basin.
Distributions were done in Milaor, Camarines Sur (250 packs plus 18 boxes); Ocampo, Camarines Sur (250 packs); Daraga, Albay (500 packs plus the balance of the goods in boxes).
A total of 24 employees volunteered to pack the relief goods in two nights (13-14 Dec 06) whilst 29 employees went to Bicol to deliver the relief goods on 15-17 Dec 06. The relief operations took 36 hours. We stayed in Bicol for 12 hours. Going there by bus took 12 hours and another 12 hours to return home.
We spent a total of Php 428k, excluding the salaries of the guards, runners and other hidden costs, for the relief operations.
3. Rehabilitation Efforts (24-28 Jan 07)
The rehabilitation efforts were focused in re-roofing 40 typhoon damaged houses in the GK Village in Ocampo, Camarines Sur (about 480kms South of Manila). Fifty (50) employees volunteered for the rehabilitation phase but we were able to accommodate 10 male and 10 female employees only due to budgetary and operational constraints.
The 20 HSBC employees, who were divided into five teams and were augmented by two carpenters per team, were able to re-roof 37 houses in three days- (9 complete roofs and 2 half spans on the first day after an overnight travel of 10 hrs with little sleep; 15 roofs on the second day and 13 on the final day). GK re-roofed 10 houses with materials from our donated funds prior to our arrival. Forty-seven (47) houses were re-roofed by our Rehabilitation Efforts.
The total budget for the rehabilitation phase was Php780k; Php 600k was earmarked for the materials and Php 180k was for operating expenses. We spent a total of Php 747k.
4. Thank you!
Typhoon Reming killed more than 1,500 persons and damaged or totally destroyed more than 100 thousand houses in Bicol alone. Another 30thousand houses were damaged in Marinduque Province.
Thank you so much for your donation, time and efforts! As a Bank and as individuals , we stood up and acted together during the critical moments in our nation's history.
Our volunteers worked so hard.
The Relief component was a continuous 36 hours undertaking with very little sleep.
The Rehabilitation phase was hard work of 3 days and two nights of land travel.
During a brief send off ceremony in the evening of 27 Jan 07 in Ocampo, Camarines Sur, the GK Project Director, Mr Boy Sarte, commented that as bankers they expected us to finish 15 roofs in 3 days. But "HSBC employees work religiously, passionately and methodically. They are like the US Marines. The difficult, they do immediately. The impossible takes them a little time but it gets done anyway."
Marites, a house owner and a 4th grader with 6 minor children, wrote in Pilipino that "HSBC employees are heaven sent. Now my little children will no longer sleep under the elements." In tears, she embraced the team members that re-roofed her house.
Please see attached photos for information. kindly see StaffExchange for more information.
Regards
Ben
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Previous to this email, Sir Ben narrated in detail our experience in Phase II as he nominated us for a G2G award:
Sir Ben's G2G nomination
The team left Makati at 7pm on Wednesday, 24 January 2007 and arrived at the site at 5am of the following day. After the welcome ceremonies with a holy mass, breakfast, briefing, distribution of gears and the formation of the team into five groups, with two carpenters for each group, the team devoted themselves into the task of re-roofing the houses, stopping only at 5pm when the Gawad Kalinga ran out of lumber. Nine (9) houses were completed whilst half spans were completed in two houses. These accomplishments for the first day were delivered notwithstanding an overnight travel of 10 hours with very little sleep.
The following day, 26 January 2007, the team started at 8 am. A local group of two carpenters plus helpers were likewise organised by the team. At 2:30pm, the team encountered severe lack of lumber. Some of the team members helped in making concrete hollow blocks. One team worked up to 7:30pm to finish their third house for the day. The team completed 14 houses (2.8 per group) whilst the local group finished one house for a total of 15 houses on the second day. These output were delivered notwithstanding the fact that the team was rained out in their sleeping quarters at 4 o'clock in the morning. (The sleeping quarters was a school house with rough cement floor with no division, no doors and windows. Half of the roof was blown off by typhoon Reming and was temporarily replaced with canvass which did not prevent drenching some of the sleeping team members).
On the final day, 27 January, the team started to run out of lumber starting at 3:30pm. Some members worked up to 7pm whilst those who ran out of lumber moved to help the other groups. The team managed to finish 13 houses on the third day.
A total of 37 houses were completed by the team in three days. Gawad Kalinga completed 10 houses from the funds donated by HSBC before the team arrived. A total of 47 houses were re-roofed by this Project.
The team left Ocampo at 7:30pm on 27 January. Dined in Naga City for two hours and arrived in Makati at 6am the following day, 28 January 2007. Every member of the team reported for work in the Bank the following day, Monday, 29 January 2007.
This award is likewise given for the safety consciousness displayed by the team. Whilst the 15 locals were wounded, no member of the team suffered job related injuries."
Ben
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Sir Ben's report was forwarded by my boss to the Loans team, and i was very very touched by his simple message:
wala lang...Ü just like our GK build in Leyte, these are the things that i'll always look forward to in the next few years that i planned to stay with the Bank.
to the team: Sir Ben, Danny, Eugene, Baybay, Adrian, Bong, Cynthia, Faye, Flora, Gboy, Jamie, Karen, Mau, Mendel, Mikko, Net, Nilda, Pam, Nilo... THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! i had sooooo much fun being with you guys! miss ko na kayo! Ü
