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International Volunteer Day 2018: my experience giving back for First Days

John Crossley
December 5, 2018

GUEST BLOG by Buu Lieu,

High Touch Delivery Manager, UKI SP & Enterprise at Cisco

The act of giving something back to the community or those less fortunate than yourself is a reward in itself.

When you find yourself involved in a project that relates to your own life it makes it even more special.

My family came over to England from Vietnam in the late 70s to escape the communist regime. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs and some soggy Vietnamese documentation to prove who we were. We would have greatly benefited from a charity like First Days, had it existed back in the day.

Volunteering at Cisco

The First Days charity was founded in 2013 by a young mum who had more than she needed for her new born child and didn’t want to see the surplus go to waste. She found there were other like minded mothers who came together to help other mothers that were less fortunate. It’s one of the charities that we’re supporting at Cisco as part of being able to give some of our time back into volunteering and community projects.

It’s also one that I’ve been proud to support.

Families with young children are referred to First Days who provide care packages ranging from nappies, prams, clothing, toys through to all things related to Halloween, Christmas, school essentials etc.

Last month we had a team day supporting the charity in what is a very busy time in the build up to Christmas.

We spent the day sanitising, testing and providing quality control over donated toys. This involved sorting through winter clothing into appropriate age groups so they can be easily retrieved as these items are now in demand. Some of the team even had the envious job of sorting through the Christmas donations, separating toys from the clothes and decorations and costumes.

Whilst we were a couple of months away from Christmas, we couldn’t complete this task without playing Christmas songs!

As you can see from the pictures, the team had a great time bonding, learning about the great support First Days provide to young families in Berkshire and came away feeling really good about themselves and clearly looking forward to Christmas!

I’m so happy to be able to give something back to the community by volunteering for this charity, and it makes me feel proud to work at Cisco.

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• csr
• first days charity
• International Volunteer Day
• volunteering