Unilever Pakistan employee programmes

Teacher and student training for The Citizen’s Foundation

TCF held a ‘Basic Computer Hardware and Software Workshop’ for all its South Computer Teachers. This 3-day training, first of its kind, took place at TCF Secondary School, Al-Muhaimin Campus, Quaidabad in Karachi.

The objective of this workshop was to provide TCF’s computer teachers with basic hardware and software knowledge necessary to handle day-to-day problems that arise in their school computer labs. Empowering the teachers with the knowledge of tackling these problems will not only save time but also curtail TCF’s administrative costs.

Unilever’s IT staff conducted this workshop and used their experience, as well as feedback from TCF computer teachers, to develop content of this workshop. Participants were taught how to install software such as Windows, MS Office, Norton Antivirus and other important drivers. 

The teachers were also shown how to assemble the various parts of a computer and different ways to troubleshoot problems with monitors, printers and hard drives. volunteers from Unilever; the first had covered basic computer usage that familiarized the participants with Microsoft Office and the Urdu software INPAGE.

The sessions received an enthusiastic response from the TCF faculty who found them to be both informative and useful. TCF is appreciative of Unilever Pakistan for this contribution and hopes that this workshop can become a regular feature of its Teacher Training Programme.

LUMS entrance test training for students were also conducted by Unilever employees. The employees spent their weekends teaching and guiding the 30 TCF students for the LUMS programme. We later held an Employee recognition day at the Unilever head office with staff from both TCF and Unilever present to recognize all those who contributed towards “Making a better world.”

Employees at Rahim Yar Khan factory work towards “making a better world”

Our  employees are actively involved and work directly with the teachers and students at the Unilever adopted RYK Government school. Some of the employee initiatives undertaken are; teacher training, developing and implementing behavioural programmes to improve educational environment, conducting summer camps for the students and working closely with local district officers through adhering to government syllabus and policies.

Education programme for workers at the Khanewal tea factory

An education drive was initiated at the khanewal Tea Factory called “Fuel for the Future”. The target was the workforce, 550 in all, out of which 85 volunteered to study towards completing their matriculation. From these workers, 19 were selected for enrolment with the Multan Board.

A tutor was hired to teach these students for 2 hours daily. Each student was provided with a syllabus, stationery and other accessories. Results showed that 17 of these workers cleared the final exams with two of them attaining 1st division.  This encouraged us to continue with the programme.  We arranged a simple but impressive ceremony to award the workers who secured 1st division in the board exams.  The programme is in its second year with another 26 students to appear in 9th  / 10th grade Multan Board Examinations.

Kakapeer girls school - a great experience!

In our day to day busy life schedule we sometimes tend to complain a lot and grumble over one thing or the other, missing out on small pleasures in life. Our community service at Kakapeer School was one such eye opener which made us count our blessings. 

We found out that WWF is sponsoring a school by the name of WWF Kakapeer School. This school is located in the village Kakapeer at Sandspit beach, Kakapeer villagers are basically fishermen, a very conservative community & were never in favour of sending women folk out of their houses, but with efforts put together WWF has managed to change the perspective of the villagers due to which the girls of the village & now permitted to attend school to gain some basic education. 

After we had a look at this school we were convinced to do something for the students. The school has no electricity or water & the situation of the school is very poor. We then formed a team consisting of 10 volunteers, to conduct classes every alternate Saturday at Kakapeer School. We did not go there with the impression of being teachers but we went there as friends we spoke generally with them so that they could get comfortable with us, they shared with us their daily routines (a very tough life indeed) & we conveyed to them basic knowledge of cleanliness, hygiene, health, safety & manners, seeing their enthusiasm we also taught them some handy craft like flower making, arranging beads & making photo frames. 

Our main objective was to do something worthwhile that would leave an impression on them & to make a difference. We were amazed to see that in spite of their background, these girls never had the urge for materialistic possessions & they never complained.   On our last visit we had a small party, with some snacks & small gifts given by our brand teams, we then asked them what they learnt from us & they had a million things to say (especially not eating chalia & abusing), we could see the difference in them in acting out what we had taught them. . At the end of the day we too learnt a lot from them specially appreciating life & all that we have in it.  

Our brand teams have made tremendous contributions, and also the volunteers without whom this project would not have been a success.