Irina Chikulina: “Your professional knowledge and skills make you useful”

11 april 2023

SIBUR has been actively involved in promoting smart volunteering by forging a community of caring individuals who are ready to help others free of charge by offering their knowledge, skills, and experience. One of the first events of 2023 featured a webinar on smart volunteering. Thanks to this online meeting with their colleagues, many of the company’s employees became more familiar with the ProCharity platform that is used by SIBUR’s volunteers to carry out their pro bono assignments. Irina Chikulina, Chief Expert of Sibur-Khimprom's Corporate Communications Department, discusses about her personal involvement in smart volunteering.

Irina, would you please tell us how you came across smart volunteering?
- I learned about this project from a post published on my favorite CLICK network (SIBUR's internal social network. Editor’s note), and that aroused my curiosity. And that’s how it all started.

Why did you decide to try on the role of a smart volunteer?
- As a SIBUR volunteer, I'd been taking part in various volunteering events for 5 years now. And it's just great that I've now learned about smart volunteering. Your professional knowledge and skills make you useful.

What kinds of assignments do you take on? Are there any ones that you have already completed?
- I have only started accepting such assignments. Because of my location, I can only accept jobs that can be performed remotely. For example, the events in Moscow and Kazan that I have seen would require one’s personal presence there. So, instead, I respond to assignments dealing with copywriting or translation from English.

What does "being a volunteer" mean to you? Do you find this important and if so, why?
- For several weeks now, my days have been starting with me checking my email, news on the CLICK and on the ProCharity platform. I think that speaks for itself. I think that by performing these kinds of jobs you are not just helping nonprofits a great deal, but you are also evolving as a person by broadening your horizons and by meeting people. I view being useful as my small contribution to making this world somewhat better.