Volunteering around the globe

Since the very beginning of the global pandemic, Capgemini employees all around the world offered their time and their talent to help some of the most vulnerable communities in their time of need.

From helping students overcome the challenges of home schooling to connecting with those who suffer from social isolation, offering support to victims of violence, and providing meals to the homeless, our people did their best to make a positive impact.

Supporting students

“I wanted to contribute practically to the effects of the pandemic on the young,” explains Karin Danielsson, contract and sustainability manager. “With schools closing during the spring, students’ access to support to complete their assignments and meet requirements was dramatically reduced, or even disappeared. I realized I could help such students, thanks to my own knowledge, in achieving their goals.”

Karin saw an opportunity in our partnership with the Red Cross to provide free homework support for secondary and high-school students.

Capgemini’s role in the Red Cross initiative is to provide a Power BI solution that visualizes humanitarian needs and challenges in the helpline. In this case, the solution highlights the challenges that children are facing, helps to determine necessary actions, and improves the services offered.

Helping the socially isolated

In Spain, Capgemini employees are connecting to people who are socially isolated through two helplines. Estamos en Contacto, via the Adecco Foundation, connects volunteers to people with disabilities through a mental health helpline, in order toe help them overcome various physical and emotional challenges on a day-to-day basis. Illumina Una Vida connects volunteers with the elderly to combat loneliness.

Capgemini Spain provides financial and volunteering support to these NGOs to ensure that our colleagues are equipped and ready to interact with beneficiaries through suitable training.

Alvaro Felici Llacer, a volunteer for Estamos en Contacto, explains his volunteer work: “It has been a very enriching experience. I have been making periodic calls to a person with a disability to check in on them to see how their day was going, and whether they need any additional help. I’m proud to work in a company that supports and motivates volunteer work like this.”

In France, meanwhile, Capgemini helped create SOS Confinement, a freephone service to accompany people struggling with social isolation, feelings of exclusion, anxiety, and loneliness during the lockdown period. The helpline is based on Salesforce technology and Capgemini’s Odigo contact center platform, with a capacity of 2,500 calls per day. The service received the help of 150 Samu Social International volunteers in responding to calls.

Also in France, our partnership with Fondation des Femmes is helping at-risk communities find a safe location to shelter in place. Women who are victims of violence are given access to emergency overnight stays at hotels, as well as food vouchers. Through this partnership, we are also able to help provide the tools needed to keep helplines functioning.

Providing meals to those in need

In India, Capgemini volunteers are working with Parisar Asha, an organization that delivers meals and facilitates public health sessions on social media for children and parents, as well as an online chat service helpline. Thanks to our volunteers, over 652,000 meals have been served and nearly one million people have been reached so far.

In the United States and Canada, Capgemini employees are driving donations to Feeding America, with a goal of $10,000 in order to provide 100,000 meals to people facing hunger during difficult times like lockdown, and winter.

The show must go on

Offering our most precious resources – time and expertise – can make a real impact on communities around the globe. The scale of the work to be done might seem overwhelming, but so too is the compassion and motivation of our people. Capgemini will continue to support them in responding to the needs of the community.

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Sarah Gonçalves wasn’t always a data engineer. She began her career as an archaeologist, unearthing the secrets of the past in sites across France before retraining as a data engineer. She brings the same curiosity to her new vocation at Capgemini, using artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover what lies beneath the surface.