Last Updated On August 2016
“Nurturing a tree involves a lot of processes, It’s not as simple as everyone thinks”, said Marie, a volunteer from Esquire Financing Inc. (EFI).
EFI, a lending company focused on providing additional capital to growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), once again partnered with Haribon Foundation where the volunteers participated in the organization’s native tree nursery and learning center, Buhay Punlaan in Brgy. Lumban, Laguna. They learned how seedlings were tended and nurtured until such time that they would be ready for tree planting activity. This involved soil potting, re-bagging, soil hardening, and weeding.
Doing the work in a plant nursery was not exactly an easy job. “It’s exhausting, but seeing my colleagues who belong from different departments work together, this time, for a different cause makes participating in activities like this worthwhile,” Angie, EFI’s Customer Relationship Management Associate (CRMA) shared. “It’s a good consolation that these efforts lead to something noble,” Mark, Information Technology/ Management Information System Department (IT/MIS) added.
Volunteers accomplished the activities and learned a lot about the benefits of native trees in sustaining the country’s biodiversity and providing many other benefits too. “Despite the short amount of time, we still felt fulfilled knowing that the nursery is after all, about ensuring the continuity and sustainability of the combined efforts of all partners of Haribon,” said Wenie, member of the Credit Operations team.
“This activity reminds us to not take things for granted especially those who are working on these tasks full time,” Eloida, one of EFI’s in-house Loan Specialists, reflected. “It provided me a different and fulfilling work outside my usual workstation,” mentioned Renie, a volunteer from Credit Operations team.
“Reinforcing the idea that natural conservation goes beyond the mere notion of tree planting, we are just scratching the surface; but we’re on the right path nonetheless,” concluded Byron, EFI’s Marketing & Sustainability Officer.
When asked if the volunteers would participate again in a similar effort such as this, “yes” was a unanimous response.
EFI’s participation in Buhay Punlaan is one of its many initiatives in becoming not only as a trusted financing partner for small, but growing businesses, but also as a responsible stakeholder in the bigger society we all live in.
