Volunteer Club
In the year the Volunteer Club was founded, the implemented volunteer activities were focused on various target groups, initiatives and goals.
As a consequence, our employees provided support to many environmental initiatives and get involved in the clearing of the picnic area in Fruška gora, removal of waste from the banks of Tamis River, cleaning of the perimeter of the Petrovaradin Fortress and the development of Ada Huja.
To celebrate the centenary of the end of World World I and 180 years of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Russian Federation, a large number of volunteers were organised to restore the Russian Ossuary on the Russian Necropolis in Belgrade. The action was carried out in cooperation with the Russian House and the Dependency of the Russian Church in Serbia.
During 2018, the members of the Volunteer Club continued to provide support to the association “Give a Cap, Get a Smile”, by collecting plastic caps for containers in the company’s Business Centers. Having in mind that the plastic caps were transported for recycling, whereas the funds obtained in that way were used for humanitarian purposes, the employees participated in this activity to help procure various walking aids that would make the lives of young people with disabilities a bit easier.
As children are always the focal point of corporate social responsibility in NIS, volunteers spent one day with the protégés of the Institution for Children and Youth in Sremčica, to help them arrange their yard, sports courts and paint the building’s facade wall.
In an effort not to neglect the socially deprived citizens, we collected clothing for them, while our volunteers, led by a famous street artist, demonstrated their artistic spirit by participating in the action of painting a mural inside the building of the Institute for Mother and Child “Dr Vukan Čupić”, and a mural on the wall of a NIS petrol station in New Belgrade.
As a part of the traditional campaign for raising New Year’s gift baskets in 2018, the children being treated at the Studenica General Hospital in Kraljevo and the Clinical Center in Niš, as well as the protégés of the SOS Children’s Village in Kraljevo were delighted to receive these presents from the volunteers.
The most wonderful way to start a year is by giving to others, and we started the year 2019 with the campaign “1000 gift baskets for 1000 children’s smiles”. As a part of this campaign, the volunteers spent time with and presented the gifts baskets to the children from the Children Are the World’s Pearl Association, whose activities are aimed at improving the living conditions of the children and the youth with developmental or other disabilities who are placed in foster homes.
To improve the conditions for children being treated at the Dr Vukan Čupić Mother and Child Institute during their stay at the hospital, the volunteers painted the emergency reception room, decorated the pre-operative unit and the operation theatre area, wishing to divert and relax the youngest patients with the variegated and dynamic wallpaper designs.
Staying true to its determination to be involved in the ecological initiatives, members of the Volunteer Club took part in the development of green spaces on the central children’s playground in Kikinda and the activity for “Newer, Greener Novi Sad”. The NIS Company and its volunteers received recognition for their engagement in the program conducted by the Provincial Government “Cleaner and Greener Schools in Vojvodina”. Under this program, the volunteers and the students of the Primary and Secondary School for Children with Special Needs “9. maj” in Zrenjanin organised and painted a sports court, while the students of Dušan Vasiljev High School from Kikinda gave a lecture on ecology and waste management.
Motivated by a noble goal to preserve the environment, the volunteers continued to support the “Give a Cap, Get a Smile Campaign”, providing the opportunity for the consumers to join the plastic cap collection campaign, by disposing of them in designated boxes placed in petrol stations.
Bearing in mind that the activities of the Volunteer Club often stem from the initiatives of employees working in different organisational units of the company, their potential was revealed in 2019 during the implementation of the internal volunteer competition ”Improve! Teach! Spread Joy!“. The competition was centred on encouraging volunteers, as project owners, to act independently in creating concepts, forming teams and implementing project activities. The value of this competition was recognized by the professional community and thus our company was awarded the National Volunteer Award in the category “Breakthrough of the Year” for 2019, traditionally awarded by the Responsible Business Forum and Smart Collective.
Members of the Volunteer Club, divided into teams, participated in the big autumnal cleaning campaign in the Botanical Garden “Jevremovac”. Besides collecting fallen branches and leaves, the volunteers and the employees of the Botanical Garden and the Institute of Botany were involved in the preparation of a substrate for laying divots for the children’s playground.
To bring new additions to the library of the famous Aleksinac High School, one of the oldest high schools in the country, members of the Volunteer Club collected textbooks and expert literature in the Russian language. A large number of employees responded to the invitation from the volunteers and got involved to secure as many books and manuals as possible, which thrilled the students of the Serbian-Russian Department of this educational institution.
More than 300 of our employees from different areas of the country joined Nurdor’s big action “Take a step” through an application specially designed to convert steps into monetary donations. With the company’s CEO at their head, the volunteers took a symbolic walk, from the company’s Business Center in New Belgrade to the University Children’s Clinic, to raise funds for the construction of a new Parents’ House in Belgrade intended to accommodate parents and children for their stay during treatment.
The year 2019 was closed with a traditional campaign – packing the New Year’s gift baskets, the activity that gathered the senior management of our company and both players and management of the Basketball Club Partizan. This time, the sweet gift baskets were donated to the children residing in the social protection institutions “Kolevka” in Subotica, “Spomenak” in Pančevo, “Jefimija” in Kruševac, “Stanko Paunović” in Negotin and “Duško Radović” in Niš.
The spirit of volunteerism of our colleagues dwarfed the challenges we were faced with as a society with the arrival of the COVID-19. In the year the epidemic resulted in the declaration of the state of emergency, our employees earned more than 2000 volunteer hours. The activities of the Volunteer Club members during the emergency demonstrated that solidarity and empathy are basic emotions that drive people to provide assistance and support.
Complying with all anti-epidemic measures, the Volunteer Club’s Caravan visited healthcare facilities in Pančevo, Niš, Kanjiža, Novi Bečej, Požarevac, Srbobran, Kikinda, Žitište, Čačak and Zrenjanin, which received valuable medical equipment under the previously implemented Together for the Community Program. After the delivery of NIS donations: ambulances, dental chairs, ophthalmic and ultrasound devices and many other pieces of equipment, volunteers visited healthcare facilities and renovated the rooms and exterior by painting walls, windows and doors, installing wall decorations and window foils, and carried out the soft landscaping of the courtyard and the entrance to the facility.
The Volunteer Club’s activities were also oriented towards supporting the most vulnerable categories of the population, i.e. seniors older than 65, who needed help with various daily chores during the state of emergency. Volunteers also put to use their skills and equipment and, during the state of emergency, they produced cotton face masks for the general population and face shields for health workers. Our colleagues from the Kikinda Fire Brigade actively contributed to the prevention of the spread of the epidemic by getting involved in the campaign organised to disinfect the city’s public spaces.
Supported by the company’s top management, which gladly and ever more frequently takes an active part in volunteer actions, a campaign was organised to carry out the packing and delivery of “Jazak” bottled water to Covid hospitals in Belgrade and Zrenjanin, considering the great demand for fresh water supplies both for patients and health workers, and to vulnerable municipalities of Ivanjica and Blace, both greatly affected by the devastating floods that left them without the drinking water.
Despite the challenging circumstances, aware of the fact that not everyone is lucky enough to celebrate the holidays surrounded by family members, our employees kept on the tradition of impersonating Santa Clause’s helpers. In 2020, the New Year’s gift baskets were collected for donation to children in shelters in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Kragujevac.
Guided by the belief that humanity and empathy are the greatest human virtues, members of the NIS Volunteer Club proceeded with their noble mission in 2021 as well, supporting various target groups in our society.
In the year when Serbia’s health system is still in the front line fighting coronavirus, our company recognised the importance of supplying both our medical workers and patients treated in hospitals all over our country with bottled water on a regular basis. With this in mind, we continued donating substantial quantities of Jazak water to our health institutions, while the company’s tireless volunteers ensured that water was packaged and delivered to the General Hospital in Čačak and the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia. Furthermore, on one of the hottest days of the year, Volunteer Club members distributed Jazak water to the medical and technical staff of the Emergency Ward, as well as to the patients and visitors who happened to be within the area of the important medical institution.
Since child care has been the focus of the socially responsible business activities of NIS for years now, the employees wanted to provide the youngest members of our community with different kinds of support and thus they enthusiastically volunteered their time to show them their skills.
Aware of the importance of a healthy and balanced diet during the treatment of children with malignant diseases, NIS employees were the first volunteers who planted organic vegetables and herbs in the garden of the National Association of Parents of Children with Cancer (in Serb. NURDOR), located at the Garden Can Do Wonders farm in Valjevska Kamenica. Through this activity, our Volunteer Club members helped the efforts to have these healthy and unsprayed gifts of nature reach the little ones in NURDOR Parent Houses.
In order to make the beginning of a new school year nicer and easier for socially vulnerable children and children without parental care, NIS employees provided school equipment and supplies for more than 600 students. Beneficiaries of the Belgrade Child Care Agency, of the Zvečanska Orphanage, and the children who participate in the life and work in the streets and are also beneficiaries of the Drop-in Centre for Street Children in Belgrade and of the Drop-in Centre for Children and Youth in Novi Sad, and also the children without parental care staying in the SOS Children’s Village in Kraljevo, were given the school supplies packages by volunteers who wished them a successful school year.
Additionally, wishing to have the students of the Primary School Milica Stojadinović Srpkinja in Vrdnik start the new school year in a nicer, renovated environment, the Volunteer Club members painted the school facade and delivered a fresh quantity of Jazak bottled water, which is of great relevance given that the school uses only utility water.
With a view to helping improve environmental protection, NIS employees, members of the Volunteer Club, together with PUK Zelenilo Pančevo, planted 500 saplings of London plane and silver maple trees in the Pančevo Oil Refinery and the surrounding area, in the total length of almost 2.5km, in December. The ecological activity will not only embellish the part of Pančevo where the oil refinery is situated, but also have a beneficial effect on the quality of air in the town.
In the following period, members of the NIS Volunteer Club will continue putting in their efforts to support vulnerable categories of the society, and also contribute to the development of the entire community.
We have been doing great and important things for five years already. The spirit of togetherness, commitment and deeds full of love are only a small segment describing the big hearts of the members of our Volunteer Club. Full of fellow feelings and empathy, members of the NIS Volunteer Club shone bright in the previous year as well with their activities and continued accomplishing their mission to support not only different target groups, but also the environment which awards us abundantly for every effort to preserve it.
We are proud of the activities and initiatives undertaken by our volunteers who showed a high level of environmental awareness and fellow feeling at work in 2022 as well.That year saw our Club expand by 471 members who have thus made it count more than 1900 diligent members now. Last year, we undertook 11 volunteer activities as part of which our members volunteered 679 hours of their time.
Wishing to educate the youngest members of our community on the importance of preserving a healthy environment as one of the basic goals of sustainable development, together with the From a Bottle Cap to a Smile Association, NIS organised a series of educational workshops titled “Environmental Upbringing, Healthy Upbringing!” for more than 450 students of primary schools in Niš, Kikinda, Kovilje, Čačak and Belgrade. Apart from interactive lectures on recycling, the students had an opportunity to take part in different creative workshops with members of the Volunteer Club. The Club’s educational activities also involved older age students, thus NIS fire brigade held a lecture to secondary school students from Kikinda on fire protection and prevention of carbon-monoxide poisoning.
After the series of educational lectures, members of the Volunteer Club planted broadleaved and coniferous trees in Sentandrejski Park in Novi Sad, the construction of which the Company also funded, and with this activity they started a series of environmental activities planned across the country.
Thus, on the occasion of the World Environment Day, our hard-working volunteers cleaned the riparian area of the Sava River at Ada Ciganlija, maintaining the tradition of keeping green and popular picnic areas in order.
In 2022 we also held an internal volunteer competition on the subject of environmental protection titled “Change the Circumstances in Your Environment”. The selected ecological activity proposals whose authors are the Company’s employees got all required support for the implementation. Owing to our volunteers’ exceptional initiatives and efforts, we also arranged a part of the embankment in Bačka Palanka within Nature Park Tikvara, in Banatsko Veliko Selo we carried out “Let’s Make Our Village Look Better” activity as part of which our volunteers also arranged the park in the centre of the village and embellished it with oak saplings, while in the area of the newly-built sports and recreational centre in Kula we planted red maple saplings.
We continued our ecological activities by renovating the children’s medical plant garden and putting in order the garden and hall of the Zvečanska Orphanage building, where we held a lecture to the little ones on the importance of recycling and Earth conservation, after which we joined forces with them to make pots and plant herbs. Our volunteers ended the season of ecological activities by arranging the park in Block 21 in Novi Beograd where they renovated park furniture, organised green areas and enriched them with new saplings.
The crown of the volunteer year was the great New Year activity when we organised a caravan as part of the “May New Hopes Be Born” campaign that visited 15 towns and municipalities all over the country. To implement this exceptional national campaign, our volunteers doubled their efforts. Bearing in mind the fact that NIS donated 225 new born baby gift sets in 2023 containing locally manufactured baby care products and clothes needed when babies leave a maternity ward, our volunteers added disposable diapers to these sets and also ensured that the maternity wards in Vranje, Zaječar, Leskovac, Kruševac, Bor, Ćuprija, Paraćin, Knjaževac, Sremska Mitrovica, Užice, Pirot, Loznica, Šabac, Vršac and Valjevo get a timely delivery of 15 gift sets each for new born girls and boys.
Furthermore, our company also preserves the tradition of organising blood drives, which since 2022 are carried out systematically within the Blood Donor’s Club together with the NIS Unitary Trade Union. Owing to the altruism and fellow feeling of the employees in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pančevo and Zrenjanin, we collected almost 300 units of blood in 8 blood drives, which helped make stable blood reserves at the competent transfusion centres.
Together, we achieve a lot and we do important things. NIS is proud of its Volunteer Club which opens every new project it undertakes with ever greater enthusiasm, love and hope every year. Until today, we have volunteered over 6000 hours of our time and undertaken 68 activities to support different vulnerable groups in our society, contribute to the development of the community and environmental protection, and bring hundreds of smiles to the faces of both children and our fellow citizens. Hoping for a better tomorrow, with our hearts full of positive emotions and arms wide open, we are looking forward to our volunteering in 2023.
The NIS Volunteer Club celebrates its fifth anniversary this year and continues its noble mission of providing support to vulnerable segments of the population, demonstrating a high level of social responsibility. For five years in a row, the members of the Volunteer Club have been investing their time and knowledge in the development of the welfare of society. For example, in 2023 alone, volunteer time totalled more than 1,000 hours, just under 42 days.
Since the club was founded in 2018, the number of members has exceeded 1,900, with a total of 7,300 hours of volunteering time across 77 charity events. It is important to note that some of the club’s projects are based on the initiatives of the volunteers themselves. The initiatives are evaluated and selected for implementation annually as part of a competition.
In 2023, the Volunteer Club focused primarily on environmental projects and on supporting children and young people by improving their conditions in various institutions.
As part of the long-term cooperation with the Milorad Pavlović Children’s Village in spring 2023, the club gave the children of the village new bicycles and toys, and the volunteers spent the whole day playing games with the children, spreading joy and positivity.
Supporting children and young people is always a priority for the club’s volunteers, so the third competition of volunteer initiatives was also dedicated to supporting children from vulnerable categories and was held under the slogan “Small steps to big smiles”. As a result of the contest, three campaigns were organised to support children’s institutions. The volunteers set up an arts and crafts corner in the building of the Naši snovi Association for Special Needs Children in Valjevo. In the town of Kuršumlija, volunteers equipped the waiting rooms of the children’s department of the town hospital and landscaped the courtyard, and in Bački Petrovac, they renovates the premises of the Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs “We” and installed new sports equipment in the yard.
As always, several volunteer activities were held last year dedicated to the start of the new school year: volunteers renovated a classroom at the Novi Sad Shelter for Children and Youth, and together with interns from the NIS Calling and NIS Energy programmes refurbished the summer stage at the Student House of Culture.
A significant part of the Volunteer Club’s projects is traditionally aimed at environmental protection. This year the volunteers of the club were happy to attend the annual clean-up day at the Fruška Gora National Nature Park. During the event, organised in cooperation with the Regional Nature Protection Unit and the Regional Secretariat for Urban Development and Environmental Protection, almost 200 volunteers not only collected a large amount of rubbish, but also drew public attention to the importance of a responsible attitude towards the environment.
As a responsible member of the society, NIS donated funds for the restoration of the Liman Park in Novi Sad, which was damaged by summer storms, and members of the Volunteers’ Club planted 145 saplings in the park.
Also in preparation for the winter holidays, the Volunteer Club annually organises a campaign to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds, which last year was held jointly with the Partizan Basketball Club. At the beginning of the campaign, the basketball club organised a flash mob, with the fans bringing 5,649 soft toys to the match with Italian Virtus and throwing them on the court at the end of the match as a sign of humanity and solidarity. During the campaign, it was possible to raise funds to buy winter clothes for 600 children in orphanages in Serbia. The club volunteers in turn provided another important attribute of the holiday – sweet gifts for the children.
In addition to volunteer work and charity, NIS employees show their commitment to the ideas of humanism by regularly participating in voluntary blood donation events organised by the Voluntary Donors Club of the NIS Trade Union Organisation in cooperation with authorised medical institutions. Thus, during 2023, a total of 572 units of blood, almost twice as much as in the previous year, were collected in 18 donation events organised at the Company’s premises in five cities.
The NIS Volunteer Club will continue its work with the same energy and enthusiasm, providing assistance to those who need it most, in order to achieve the joint goal of developing society and improving the wellbeing of its members.
