The Philippines is known to have the longest Christmas celebration in the world. As early as September, Christmas songs can already be heard playing while families already put up trees and decorations to usher in the spirit of the season. More importantly, gift-giving among families and friends truly spells Christmas in the Philippines as the season of love, care, and of hope.
At Transcom, the season is also the time for the highly anticipated Christmas Tree of Hope which has become a symbol of giving back to people who have been serving the company regardless of season, weather, calamity, or health emergency. We have the staff from housekeeping, maintenance, security, and transportation teams, along with their families, to thank for all their support and assistance to our people and our business.
The Christmas Tree of Hope is an annual activity under Transcom Cares Foundation. As early as November, a Christmas tree is set up at each of the sites’ lobby with decorative balls on which the names and gift wishes of our outsourced personnels’ kids are written. Employees participate by choosing and signing as many decorative balls they want to sponsor kids and fulfill their wishes. As folks sign up and buy the gifts, the space under the tree becomes filled with gifts which our outsourced personnel eventually bring to their kids who wished for them.
The pandemic and all the restrictions it brought along with social distancing and work at home setup took away that exciting activity of visiting the physical tree at the site lobby to choose and write on a decorative ball with thoughts about making a kid happy on Christmas.. Transcom, nonetheless, thought of an innovative way to still continue with this tradition despite the restrictions. A digital Christmas Tree of Hope was launched via the T:Buddy app and allowed employees not only from the Philippines but also from teams in North America to sponsor more than 500 kids in 2020.
Two of our outsourced personnel whose kids were beneficiaries of the Christmas Tree of Hope share their experience about this activity.
“ROY”
Roy Buenaflor has been part of the outsourced housekeeping team since 2007. At the start of the lockdowns in the Philippines in March 2020, Roy was one of the people assigned by his agency to remain onsite.
“We did not expect the pandemic but the first order of business was to keep the site clean. This required round-the-clock sanitation of frequently touched surfaces and common areas onsite,” Roy shares.
Though Roy has been assigned to Transcom for almost 13 years, he was only able to participate in the Christmas Tree of Hope for the last 3 years. He happily recalls though that the first gifts his children received in 2018 were car toys and shoes. His kids’ names and wishes have been on the Christmas Tree of Hope since then.
“I want to thank the Transcom employee who sponsored the gift for my child this Christmas. Thank you very much again to Transcom and their employees,” he adds.
“PINKY”
Pinky Nuñez has only been with her agency for three (3) months. She is also assigned as a housekeeping staff at Transcom. She is one of our frontliners, serving the employees and the company’s needs onsite. Pinky shares that although it’s too risky to go out daily to report for work, her three children motivate her to face such a challenge.
She enlisted only one of her kids and a niece in the Christmas Tree of Hope. Her desire was to also share the happiness that the Tree of Hope brings to other members of her family especially during the holiday season. Although she’s only been assigned to Transcom for three months, she is truly grateful for the opportunity to be assigned at company and to experience the culture of Malasakit that is shared by employees. “I am truly thankful for the three months that I have been assigned at Transcom. It’s been a great help to me and my family,” Pinky shares.
Continue to learn more their story by watching the T: Stories feature here.