Volunteers of Delhi chapter of Elfun celebrated the first year of theiroperations last week with 80 school children from the Indira Vikas Slum, theSpastics Society of India, and Mobile Creches. ``Volunteering is the heartand soul of Elfun. Our volunteers serve as mentors, tutors and friends. Fromcleaning playgrounds, to repairing roofs to re-painting shelters forchildren, our employees are trying to make a difference in the lives ofcommunity members,'' says Scott R Bayman, president and chief executiveofficer, GE India.

Beginning in 1969, Mobile Creches has today developed a programme toprovide day-care services to underprivileged children in Delhi, Mumbai andPune. ``Our Nehru Place facility has undergone a complete facelift after therewiring, plumbing and painting done by GE employees. Though a few gaps likeinside plastering and kitchen fittings still remain, the sponsorship by thecompany and the spirit displayed by its employees was extraordinary,'' saysAnjali Alexandar, volunteer, Mobile Creches.

But Bayman, who lead the way by painting part of the premises, feels theeffort was much more than a forum for child charity. ``It was fun. Elfun,with more than 1 million volunteers worldwide, always encourages members toback community efforts in kind rather than cash. The senior management onlylends support to such efforts. The ideas, though, come from the employeesthemselves,'' he says, pointing out that the prior association of twoemployees with Mobile Creches led to this exercise.

The coordination of the voluntary efforts is carried out by an executivecommittee that decides on Elfun projects on a case to case basis. ``In thepast one year, we have held a blood-donation camp collecting over 500 unitsof blood, held a painting competition for slum children with environment asthe theme, planted over 400 trees around the GE Motors plant in Faridabadand cleaned and repainted the crumbling premises of the Nehru Place MobileCreche,'' says Yamini Kumar, a volunteer working with the corporate officeof GE India. ``Employees from each of our businesses, be it plastics,automobiles, power systems, transportation or GE Capital, have come forwardto enroll themselves for community efforts,'' says Bayman.

Elfun began as an organisation of GE leaders in 1928 to accord members avehicle for financial investments and fraternal activities. For the first 50years, it was an elite group and membership was considered as a rite ofpassage into senior management in the General Electric Company. But in theearly eighties, its focus shifted to volunteerism in hundreds of communitieswhere GE has offices. Today it has over 36,000 members in more than 75chapters in 10 countries.

The current focus of GE Elfun, as envisioned by Bayman, includes: