Coast Capital Savings employee helping Bangladeshi students impacted by COVID-19 economic fallout
Surrey, BC – Coast Capital Savings is celebrating National Volunteer Week (April 19-25), by honouring some outstanding employees who are making a difference in their communities in the face of COVID-19.
Moshiur Rahman, Community Operations and Finance Associate with Coast Capital Savings, is a staff member who has gone above and beyond to help young immigrants in his community during this trying time. Moshiur is a volunteer with the Bangladeshi Canadian – Canadian Bangladeshi Foundation, Vancouver Chapter. The organization provides a critical sense of community for the group – but even more so during the pandemic.
“I am an active member of this organization. It is incredibly important to me to give back and build connections with my community members,” said Moshiur Rahman. “There was recently an influx of young people coming to study in Canada, and with the part-time jobs they had been counting on to support them no longer available, I knew I had to do something to help them weather the storm.”
Having recently travelled to Canada from Bangladesh to study, these students depended on part-time work to sustain them while living abroad. With the sudden and swift implications of COVID-19, many students were laid off making it difficult to pay for rent and buy basic necessities. Adding insult to injury, the majority of their parents were also financially strained and unable to assist these young people.
To support these students, Moshiur mobilized a volunteer team from the community to help buy and deliver groceries and essentials to individuals that had no other way of obtaining necessary items. The volunteers delivered these items to the students’ doorsteps and will continue to do so in the weeks to come.
The isolation has also had a severe impact on the students’ mental health. With this in mind, Moshiur and his team have organized virtual music nights – where students can come together, connect, and sing.
Coast Capital’s Help Heroes employee volunteer program, empowers employees to volunteer in their communities with up to 7.5 paid hours of volunteer time annually. In addition, employees receive $10 per hour of volunteer time (up to $1,000 annually) to allocate to a charity of their choice. Coast Capital continues to encourage employees to utilize the program by finding new ways to contribute to their community while also adhering to physical distancing and isolation.
“Community leadership is a cornerstone of our organization,” explains Maureen Young, Director, Community Leadership, Coast Capital Savings. “For many of our employees that is one of the reasons that they have chosen to work at Coast Capital. National Volunteer Week is an opportunity for us to celebrate our amazing employees, like Moshiur, who are doing incredible work to help others through these trying times.”
For more information about National Volunteer Week, please visit: https://volunteer.ca/
About Coast Capital Savings
Coast Capital Savings is Canada’s largest credit union by membership and B.C.’s first credit union to become a federal credit union. Owned by its 593,000 members, Coast Capital offers banking and investment services digitally across Canada, and through its 52 branches in the Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Okanagan, and Vancouver Island regions of British Columbia. An Imagine Canada Caring Company and a Certified B Corporation in recognition of its social performance, Coast Capital invests 10 per cent of its bottom line in youth-focused community organizations, programs, partnerships and events. The credit union has been recognized as one of Canada's Most Admired Corporate Cultures™, and holds a Best Managed Companies Platinum Club designation. Coast Capital has a history of introducing innovative products to help their members achieve financial wellbeing including Canada’s first free chequing account from a full-service financial institution and Help Extras®, enabling members to invest in their future. To learn more, visit coastcapitalsavings.com.
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