An enthusiastic team of NI Water volunteers recently helped The Mourne Gullion Strangford UNESCO Global Geopark. The park covers a diverse landscape of mountains, lowlands, lakes and dramatic glacial valleys in southeast Northern Ireland. The volunteers helped this fantastic environmental organisation on the shores of Strangford Lough at Delamont.

The volunteering day is part of NI Water’s ‘Cares Challenge’ project which has been operating successfully for over ten years and is one of the largest corporate volunteering schemes in the province.

To date over 1,850 colleagues have helped in over 130 challenges, this equates to over 13,000 hours of volunteering hours to help support communities across Northern Ireland. In the latest project, volunteers from across the organisation made a valuable contribution to Mourne Gullion Strangford UNESCO Global Geopark planting trees.

NI Water volunteer, Luba Tarane commented, ‘The Mourne, Gullion, Strangford Geopark team were brilliant throughout the day. We all enjoyed planting trees, working together with other colleagues from NI Water and very much enjoyed learning about the local biodiversity’.

As part of the programme, activities are planned for various groups throughout Northern Ireland each year and are set up in partnership with Business in the Community’s NI Cares Programme. The programme identifies organisations and charities within the local community who need a helping hand with physical tasks such as gardening and painting.

Rose Kelly, Director of People and Learning, explained: “Our handy helpers have undertaken everything from gardening, painting and maintenance to environmental and fundraising days.  It is often the extra support that these groups require to enhance their facilities, improve the lives of their members and operate their centres successfully.

“Volunteering has also proved to be a key part of our health and wellbeing toolkit.  Our teams gain so much from the experience, not only by helping the community, but also having the chance to spend time with colleagues from around the business that they might not otherwise have a chance to meet.”

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