Felisa Liss | Panel: Companies that change the world, CUMIPAZ 2017

For me it is still good morning, and let me greet you with what we are used to in Israel: Shalom; and those who do not know what shalom is, shalom is peace; and every moment and every opportunity, we greet each other like that, and I think that with the shalom greeting in this Congress of Activists for Peace, I think it is the most affectionate greeting I can give; and once again, I thank Dr. Soto, Mrs. Gabriela,  Iván Sarmiento and Mrs. Raquel Chávez for inviting me again to be with you. And I would like to, the topic that I am going to give today, at this moment is: Success stories.

And we all know, if there are Panamanians, that winning a soccer game in Costa Rica really was a success story; and what I would like, to enter the topic of the secret of successful volunteering; The secret of successful volunteering is based on three "s": Know, Feel and Satisfaction.

If I am in a company and I want to educate with values, I must know that volunteering is very important, and having volunteered in a company I will feel satisfaction, if I am a volunteer I must know that giving my free time makes me feel very satisfied.

That is, today in Israel all organizations, institutions, companies, have understood that educating in values to have volunteers in their places, because companies, institutions, organizations that have volunteers and give voluntary help, change the way of thinking; the way of thinking of companies and the way of thinking of citizens.

Today we talk a lot about smart cities, we will listen to them after lunch, for me as a volunteer educator, smart cities are the cities that understand that volunteering is part of it; and it is so, that in Israel today, every quarter that wants to become an intelligent city, cannot fail to have an area of volunteering; and it is like that, that the Ministry of Social Work supports it, and at the moment that the Ministry of Social Work understood that the volunteer is the basic thing to change the community, he gave his small support, his little economic granite and in all (I will not say in all), but almost all intendancies, we have today the area of ​​volunteering; the volunteer area that is run by a social worker who belongs to the Intendancy, who belongs to the municipality and the rest are all volunteers.

I have pride, I can say that I work in different places, but I have the pride of being a volunteer, and I am a volunteer of the municipality; that in a small municipality to which I belong, that there are around 40,000 inhabitants, we have more than 3000 volunteers, how is that handled? Today in Israel, volunteering has become a culture, a culture that begins in early childhood He continues in high school and then, after the army, continues as a part of life.

I can say that in the municipality where I am a volunteer, I have the honor to receive volunteers, interview them and then each section has (we speak, we hear about the issue of leaders today in the morning), each section has its leader, has its leader that they pass courses, preparation, all volunteers and they are the ones that direct the volunteers of their sections.

How does the volunteer arrive? Very simple: notices in the newspapers, notices on social networks, coincidentally before coming here, my phone number, my email and I get a phone number of a boy who has just finished high school and has half a year to go to military service, and he says to me: can you propose something that in this half year do not lose it, that you win the time? and I say: do not you want to go to work? That's different, but I need something for the soul. And I say: what do you like ?, He says: Let's see, what do you have to propose? And I say to him: we have a list of more than 20 proposals to be volunteers, and he, among them, tells me: Is there anything with animals? And I say: yes, we have La Granja de la Libertad, do you want me to contact you? He tells me: do me the favor. Time passes, and then since I named La Granja del voluntariado, La Granja de la Libertad.

I want to show you a small video so you can see what I mean; and I think it sums up all the volunteering part, the video is in Hebrew, I'm going to explain (Editor - Projection of the video and she goes explaining) and I'm going to tell you that the lady you are going to see, is until 2 years ago Back, she worked in high technology, she went to visit a dairy farm and saw a cow that was far away from all the others and when she asked what is it that she had? they told her: she is sick, we have nothing to do with her anymore. And so it was that she decided that she will do the impossible to cure her and she came to the municipality where I am a volunteer and asked if they can give her land, because she wants to receive all the animals that are about to go to the next world, she wants to save them.

Our municipality gave her land, in that land she started, in less than two years to contact companies, with volunteers and for two years she got carpenters, masons, electricians, all who come help; and as you can see, also volunteers who weave and dress the animals.

And when I was there, a matter of two weeks ago, I saw a mother and a daughter among the volunteers, and when I asked the mother what you are doing here, she tells me: My daughter brought me, and I tell her: how did they get there? We saw a notice in the newspaper and my daughter told me: "Mama, do not you want to come with me to be a volunteer in La Granja de la Libertad ?, and my mother tells me: if my daughter asks me, how can I not do it? and today, thanks to the fact that I come with my daughter to La Granja de la Libertad, I got two things: more love for animals and, in turn, I discovered my daughter, to travel with her, to return with her, to talk, to have common themes, I have not had until we went together and we arrived at La Granja de la Libertad. And I ask myself, if this is not success, what do we call success?

And according to what the latest research says, volunteering is health and it is more important than doing all the physical exercises and everything we used to do, because it gives us interest, gives us motivation and gives us life.

Many thanks.

Moderator

Nelson Díaz Cáceres

Felisa, thank you. I believe that here there are two central themes: One, culture, communication and organizational leadership as a specific basis for the development of volunteering. And one that we hope to hear this afternoon, the issue of Smart City, to deepen and know where these smart cities go in context.