Page 24 - Book about Friendship and Future.Stories of Volunteers.

Olga Eliseeva

Chief Operations Officer Russia, CIS & CEE

I am a happy person, and my job has to do with it. Our com-
pany has got both a successful brand and efficient operations to
satisfy the guests. In KFC we traditionally get engaged into what
is going on in the world and society. In the course of many years
a special atmosphere has established in the company: all depart-
ments and restaurants are engaged into charity activities and we
encourage and reward the employees for this drive.
In our top-management team, we support both the initiatives
and fund raising, grant money to active teams and also take part
in volunteering ourselves. We participated in the activities ar-
ranged by the KFC Corporate Charity Fund “Opening Horizons”
for teenagers from orphanages: we talked to the kids, spoke
about our jobs, performed tasks together. Recently together
with the colleagues from South Africa, we have done some paint-
ing for a pediatric hospital.
We do speak up about the kind deeds, because we do that
not for the sake of reputation but because, first, we know that
we have been doing the right thing and, second, our company is
big and visible, and here lies our responsibility – to let everyone
(employees, partners, customers, people around) see that this
can and needs to be done, that this is great.
Once I took part in a volunteer project uniting ten thousand
people. It was in the USA in 2005, I worked in another company
then. We provided aid to people after the hurricane Katrina in
New Orleans. We reconstructed the whole street, helped a doz-
en of families to get shelter. When we met the citizens, they
bowed to us saying, “Thank you for bringing our home back!”
I understood then that I could not have done so much there be-
ing alone, but such a big team volunteers managed that!
Helping somebody makes me happy. I always ask my team
to enroll me into volunteering, I am ready to help with money
or my personal effort. The only place, which I will not go to, is
an animal shelter. I will not be able to leave it without a pet, and
I have already three cats at home, one of which was taken from
the street.