Advans: being accountable
At Advans, we are committed to having a positive and lasting impact and building awareness of social and environmental issues amongst both our employees and clients. On top of our core mission, providing sustainable and responsible financial services to underserved populations, we aim to give back to the communities in which we operate. We do this through bringing staff together in team building activities focusing on helping the environment or society and partnering with local organisations also looking to make a difference. This is encouraged and implemented throughout our network, as highlighted in a few key examples from the final months of 2018 below.
In Ghana in November, Advans Ghana focused on the theme of public health with initiatives including donating to the maternity blocks of hospitals in Accra and opening savings accounts free of charge for all new babies in these hospitals in a given period. The company also offered free medical screening to its clients and the general public on 16 November with more than 300 people benefitting from the screening at the Accra Newtown branch. Similar activities took place in other regions of Ghana: Advans made a donation to Ho Lepers village, offered free health screenings at Koforidua and Kumasi, and performed environmental actions including the donation of waste containers and clean up exercises in Sunyani and Tamale. These actions were all part of Advans Ghana’s 10 year celebrations, showing how helping local communities remains at the heart of Advans' mission.
In France in October, Advans International staff took part in the company’s commitment day, with three teams of staff supporting three organisations in Paris and its suburbs. The first team participated in gardening activities to help the association ‘Réseau de Cocagne’, a network of organic vegetable gardens that employs over 4,000 people in professional rehabilitation. The second went to the ‘2 mains Ressourcerie’ at Aulnay Sous-Bois, an organisation which sorts and sells or recycles objects and materials donated by the local community, also helping local people to get back into work after a period of unemployment. Finally, the third team took young people from the EPIDE Montry association, which trains young people from 18-25 years old without qualifications, to the Louvre and did practice interviews with them. Advans staff were able to take a break from their daily tasks, discover three interesting and impactful organisations and meet new people.
In Myanmar in September, Advans Myanmar staff teamed up with Trash Hero Mandalay to launch a knowledge sharing and clean up event in the historic Atumashi Monastery. The event aimed to raise staff awareness on how to protect the environment and promote environmentally friendly habits with a special focus on plastics. Staff that attended the event committed to practice the “3Rs” of Reduce, Re-use and Refuse plastics. Staff were so motivated by the activities that they were inspired to set up some environmentally friendly initiatives at Advans Myanmar!
These examples show how important giving back to the community is for Advans. In the long term, we hope to continue working with communities and key organisations to increase our impact, get new ideas, and continue to contribute to sustainable economic and social development.
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