Intl. volunteers awarded by local charity foundation

(L-R in 1st row) Zheng Weining, founder of Shenzhen Canyou Group Co., and Liu Yong, vice president of Canyou, and (L-R in 2nd row) Brigitte Schultz, Carolina Milione and Christopher Taravella pose for a photo after the awards ceremony. Courtesy of SZ Canyou Group

Three foreign volunteers with SAP, a global software solutions provider based in Germany, have been given kudos as excellent international volunteers by Shenzhen Zhengweining Charity Foundation for their voluntary service and outstanding contributions to the cause of the disabled.

The three volunteers — Brigitte Schultz from Germany, Carolina Milione from Argentina and Christopher Taravella from the United States — attended an awards ceremony held at Shenzhen Canyou Group Co. in Futian District yesterday.

Schultz, Milione and Taravella are all members of SAP’s Social Sabbatical Program, a four-week project during which teams of the company’s top performers are dispatched to social businesses and NGOs in emerging markets to help them overcome management issues and provide suggestions on the development of business plans and organizational structures.

Shenzhen Canyou Zhijian Group Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canyou Group that focuses on building information modeling (BIM) training, is the beneficiary of the program.

At the ceremony, Zheng Weining, founder of Canyou Group and chairman of Shenzhen Zhengweining Charity Foundation, affirmed the work of the three foreign volunteers.

According to Zheng, the company has not only learned mature corporate operation management expertise and skills through the project, but also gained valuable suggestions on improving the company’s efficiency and capability.

“During the last three weeks, I had the pleasure to get to know what Canyou does for people with disabilities all over China, and especially in Shenzhen. I admire Canyou’s passion for providing not only a workplace but also a home for their BIM engineers,” said Schultz.

“I’m very happy to have been assigned to this project and I appreciate the ceremony that was organized. I hope that with our hard work and deliverables, we can help this inspiring organization run better,” said Milione.

Taravella, a consultant with SAP in the U.S., said the three of them have worked collaboratively with the Canyou team to arrive at several recommendations for improving the company’s operation.

“We hope that in the short time we have been able to make a lasting contribution that will help the organization function more effectively and have continued growth,” said Taravella.

Shenzhen Canyou Group Co. was founded in 1997 by Zheng, a severe hemophilia patient. Starting from a typing and copying workshop with five disabled people and one computer, the company has prospered to become a conglomerate with one charity foundation, eight nonprofit organizations and 32 firms.