An enthusiastic team of NI Water volunteers recently helped Share Discovery Village on their stunning 60-acre site on the tranquil shores of Upper Lough Erne. Share Discovery Village, located just outside Lisnaskea, promotes social inclusion, education and the environment through water and land-based activities. NI Water helped Share in a number of ways including gardening, painting and weeding.

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 Share Discovery Village.

Cares Challenge volunteer from NI Water Neil Brazil commented, “We really enjoyed helping at our volunteering day, the staff at the Share Discovery Village were amazing and it was also great to meet other NI Water colleagues from various areas of the business”.

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 at NI Water, 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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