Orange Sky is incredibly proud to have QBE as our first ever Principal Partner, and we've loved seeing how they've jumped on board The Sudsy Challenge!
We sat down with QBE Executive, Eleanor Debelle to chat about her experience with volunteering and why she's signed up to keep her kit on for three days this September.
"At QBE, we are incredibly lucky to have the ability to give back to the communities we live and work in, and to support the less fortunate and vulnerable members of those communities. As part of our work in this area, we recently collaborated with Orange Sky to become their Principal Partner across Australia and New Zealand. I am so excited about this partnership, because this is a community organisation that truly resonates with my personal values.
While we’ve only been working together for a short time, I've become increasingly aware of the issues people face while experiencing homelessness and the growing challenges across Australia and New Zealand.
It’s also opened my eyes to how easy it is to land on hard times - all it takes is a few things to go wrong for ordinary people like you or I to find themselves doing it tough. This has become clearer to me through the stories' shared by Orange Sky's friends. I really admire the way Orange Sky volunteers create a safe environment for people from all backgrounds to share their stories, to simply be human and connect.
Everybody has a story to tell and I genuinely enjoy hearing them. One of my favourites is of Shawn and Amo, a young couple doing it tough who got back on their feet with the support of Orange Sky.
Stories like Shawn and Amo’s have helped me to learn more about the problem of homelessness in our communities. I realise that I had a lot of preconceptions myself that simply came from not knowing or properly understanding the problem.
I realise now how important it is to spread that awareness and help break down those preconceptions. As a community, when we get a better understanding about why, we can start to problem solve. A simple step is clean clothes, a warm shower and a chat.
Sharing the stories of Orange Sky’s friends is a great first step in helping to educate and breakdown preconceptions about homelessness. I often find that once people know these stories, they want to help. Finding meaningful ways to support charities and causes can often be a barrier for a lot of people. Orange Sky gives people options for connecting with and helping those experiencing homelessness - people can volunteer, or even simpler, they can support The Sudsy Challenge!
At QBE, we’re really fortunate to have a great community of employees, customers, brokers and other professionals. I’ve been so excited to see so many of these people sign up to join in or support The Sudsy Challenge - it’s a testament to the amazing work Orange Sky and all that their volunteers do in the community!
So, from September 3-5, our QBE Community will be keeping our awesome Orange Sky t-shirts on for three days to raise funds and awareness for the 1 in 200 Australians doing it tough. You can support us here!"
Join Eleanor as a Sudsy Challenger today or support her team here.
