Volunteering in the community
At DBS, volunteerism has taken a life of its own since our staff were given two days of paid volunteer leave each year in 2000 to perform community work with any community service organisation of their choice. Performing volunteer work with welfare organisations allows both the individual and the company to rekindle their ties with the community.
In 2004, the DBS Volunteer Task Force was formed to increase the volunteerism participation rate at DBS. The Committee decided that DBS should focus on three main areas, namely:
- the Aged
- the Disabled
- Children and Youth
So far, the DBS Volunteer program has seen our staff participate in the "Hot Meals" program, where they cooked meals for the elderly at the Thomson Community Centre. DBS staff also brought mooncakes to the elderly at the Bright Hill Evergreen Home during the Mid-Autumn festival, built houses in Batam with Habitat for Humanity and visited the Institute of Mental Health where they performed songs, told stories and played games with the residents of IMH.
In addition to that, DBS volunteers also accompanied children from the Chen Su Lan Methodist Home to watch Rumpelstiltskin at the Singapore Repertory Theatre and brought elderly folk to Sentosa Underwater World.
One of the highlights in the DBS Volunteer calendar was the DBS Christmas Party for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Singapore (MDAS), Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD), Harvest Community and TENT (Teenagers Experiencing New Truth). The DBS Christmas party took place at the Asian Civilisations Museum. The guests were given a one hour tour of the South Asian Gallery of the museum. After that, they adjourned to the River Room for a buffet spread and entertainment from Zest Productions, which included games, a magic show and a 'live' performance of songs from the musical "Grease".
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