My name is Valérie Sum. I have been a full-time volunteer for 1 year at the Planète Enfants & Développement headquarters, as a skills sponsor. Discover Valérie's background and missions.
Can you tell us about the sponsorship of skills developed in your company and the opportunity you seized?
After 35 years with BNP Paribas, I wanted to give meaning to my professional life and to feel useful to those in need. BNP Paribas offers its employees the opportunity, two years before retirement, to participate in the life of an association.
It is a tripartite contract: during these 2 years, BNP Paribas "donates" the time and skills of one of its employees while continuing to pay him/her; thus BNP Paribas benefits from a tax exemption. It is therefore a "Win / Win / Win"!
Why did you choose to join Planète Enfants & Développement in particular?
My husband is Cambodian and lived through difficult situations when he was young. Today, when we go "back home", we still see children and women who are neither protected nor educated, which breaks my heart. I am therefore sensitive to the action of Planète Enfants & Développement in Cambodia but also in Vietnam, Nepal and Burkina Faso.
By joining, I also discovered that Planète Enfants & Développement is a dynamic, committed and very professional association. The good understanding between the employees in Paris but also with the countries of intervention allows us to progress in symbiosis.
That's why I don't miss an opportunity to talk about it around me and in my former banking world, so that some financial support is done!
What are your missions within the association?
I am particularly in charge of the administrative management, but I also bring a support on the human resources and the solidarity store of the association.
In concrete terms, I facilitate the work of my colleagues on a daily basis! I organize the filing of information, I elaborate and update activity follow-up tables, I participate in the logistic organization of events, I register and ship orders for our solidarity store, I welcome new collaborators in the association, I organize trainings...
This job requires good organization, rigor and the ability to manage priorities in order to be truly useful to others.
What motivates you on a daily basis?
Even if I am not in direct contact with the children and women that the association accompanies, I feel useful in the sense that I "relieve" my colleagues of time-consuming tasks that distract them from their own emergencies.
By volunteering, I have also been able to meet new people, from a world other than banking, and it is very enriching.
Not to mention that I am always so amazed at the generosity, not only of wealthy people but also of people with little means who have been supporting the association for years and very regularly.
It is a very enriching, rewarding and fulfilling experience that has led me to be more open to others! There is nothing more gratifying than to feel useful!
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