Banif employees have donated over €2,500 to various charitable causes over the first half of this year, through the bank’s monthly casual Fridays initiative.
On the last Friday of every month, Banif staff trade their formal wear for more casual attire and make a small donation in return. A different cause is chosen each month, often through staff involvement or suggestion.
The year was kicked off by helping the Young Adult Education Resource Centre at Wardija, a special needs school which caters for close to a hundred students, all with different learning needs.
Banif’s contribution helped them purchase a chicken brooder and two rabbit hutches for their animal therapy project, which is a fantastic activity for education, healing, behaviour development and growth.
The focus was turned to animals again later on in the year with a sum being collected for the Happy Paws Animal Clinic, whose neutering services helps prevent many stray dogs and cats from succumbing to perils on the streets such as malnutrition, environmental hazards or traffic accidents.
Another contribution was made through the Alive 2015 initiative, aimed at raising funds for children diagnosed with cancer. The sum collected that month went towards sponsoring two athletes who undertook the 1,000km cycling challenge.
One month’s collection went towards the Dr Klown project, which help sick children in wards with laughter therapy. The bank’s own Cristian Darmanin is a Dr Klown himself, and he helped encourage employees to pitch in by lighting up the office with his wonderful costume and contagious enthusiasm.
Christine Harmer, another employee, is heavily involved with the Right2Smile foundation. Having embarked on several voluntary trips in the past, she is currently assisting in several projects in Africa and South America, and the Banif team raised a generous sum to help see her off.
“We are very happy that, apart from the Bank’s many commitments in line with its corporate social responsibility strategy, all funds raised through casual Fridays are purely staff donations,” Adrian Coppini, chief officer corporate services at Banif Bank said.