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Caring for people through education
Patricia Gallardo, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability,
Shangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd.
S
hangri-La Hotels and Resorts envisions a community of
responsible and educated citizens who are environmentally
conscious, practise social responsibility in their daily lives
and inspire others to do the same.
In 2005 the company launched its first corporate social responsibil-
ity (CSR) initiatives, which were streamlined and refined in 2009
with the hiring of a dedicated corporate level CSR specialist. Three
key programme areas were also formalized in 2009: Sustainability,
Embrace and Sanctuary.
Sustainability, Shangri-La’s Social Responsibility programme,
systematically addresses issues that concern the environment,
supply chain, employees’ health and safety and stakeholder rela-
tions. In this way, CSR becomes a good way of doing business, as
well as a tool towards genuine development.
Beyond investing in its own people, Shangri-La believes that social
development is best instigated with young people from the local
area. Because the group operates in areas with disparate social and
economic inequalities, Shangri-La needs to work with local educa-
tion and health organizations if it wants to effect real impact and
meaningful change over a longer time period.
Embrace, Shangri-La’s Care for People Project, was
launched in September 2009, requesting that each hotel
makes a 10-15 year commitment to a chosen organiza-
tion – be it a school, health centre or orphanage – that
benefits the local community. This is chosen based
on criteria including beneficiary status/need, a match
with hotel resources and skills, and accessibility to a
hotel to encourage consistent employee volunteering.
A template on education and health project develop-
ment is made available, and hotel management and
staff work with the named beneficiary to define yearly
goals and targets. At the end of the commitment period,
it is envisioned that the children have finished higher
education, are able to look after their own health and
are ready for employment based on their own merits.
Hotels are encouraged to look at running hotel skills
training programmes to entice these graduates to work
in the industry and secure a sustainable career for them-
selves. The Embrace programme therefore represents an
interesting contribution from the private sector to ESD.
As of July 2010, 91 per cent of the hotels have
started to work on various education projects such as
school refurbishments, scholarships, hotel training and
apprenticeships and support for children with special
needs. Health projects include raising funds for surgery
and rehabilitation of children with various ailments. In
the last decade, Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur and
Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur have raised over two
million Malaysian Ringgit (USD585,820), helping a
total of 118 children undergo urgent heart surgery.
With their rare cases of cardiopathy and other heart
conditions, these children had to undergo immediate
operations in order to survive. Both hotels have been
working on supporting the recovery and return to
normal living arrangements of these children, resulting
in over 60 per cent of them now attending school.
Dignity and sense of purpose
Beyond books and classrooms, education is a powerful tool
in restoring a sense of worth, especially to individuals who
may not have the capacity for self-awareness. Since 2008,
Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa in Kota Kinabalu
has partnered with Seri Mengasih, a school for more than
100 intellectually and physically challenged children. 2010
marks the third year of full school fees support, increas-
ing student performance and eventually enticing more
students who can be apprentices at the hotel.
Rasa Sentosa Resort Chef coaches a teenaged boy in the basics of cooking
Image: Shangri-La’s Rasa Sentosa Resort, Singapore