Love in the Streets with Transparent BPO
Published:Saturday | February 17, 2024 | 12:08 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
On Wednesday as lovers across the island were celebrating the apples of their eye with roses, chocolates and other romantic gifts, employees from Transparent BPO in Spanish Town, St Catherine, were sharing the love with the less fortunate in their community.
Under the umbrella of their ‘Love in the Streets’ campaign, Valentine’s Day Engagement Specialist Nicolette Henry and her team curated 120 care packages filled with essential grocery items and distributed them across several communities in the area.
Explaining that community outreach is no novelty for them, Henry told GoodHeart this is just one of the many initiatives that they carry out yearly.
“As an engagement specialist,” she began, “I create the calendar of events for the employees on a monthly basis and one of our core values is the community. So what we did last year is we adopted the Mustard Seed Jerusalem Children’s Home for one year and we just went ahead to bless them in whatever way they needed help.”
After attempts to carry out a similar mission for this year failed, Henry said this detour led to them “having a greater impact” on the day of love.
Making stops along the way, their care packages were distributed primarily in Wynter’s Pen, McKoy Gardens, Fairfield Road, Dam Head and Angels.
“We wanted to focus specifically on Wynter’s Pen and Dam Head because those were lower income communities. A lot of person there didn’t really get a chance at higher education. We knew that in those communities we could truly make an impact,” explained Donald Ffrench, recruitment officer.
Adding another layer to the initiative, the reps explained that they also had an impromptu job fair.
Henry began, “Because we’re located in this area we decided to target citizens in this area. In that same breath, the creativity sparked again in my mind and I said that I want the recruiting team to partner with me because this will be a great opportunity for them to promote the business and let the community know that we are here.”
With the only requirement for employment at the BPO being a school-leaving certificate Henry, Ffrench explained they are excited to also provide jobs for the community.
Calling on a popular parable to elucidate, Ffrench said, “They say if you give a man a fish he will eat right now, but if you teach him to fish he will eat for life. So we believe that just giving you a job is also a way to help the community and helping you learn ‘how to fish’.”
Referring to the activity as “a big moment”, Henry said she is hopeful that this will put a fire in the spirits of the entire industry.
“I am a very competitive person also, so I know that doing this will also spark the BPO industry to take a look at what is happening.”
She continued, “When we were leaving, persons were fanning down the van. It’s like ‘oh this is the food van’. It was just a blessing. The love was real and they were really surprised.”