When Eric Bracho, University Recruitment Manager for Baker Hughes in Latin America (LATAM) added a volunteering event to the schedule for 59 soon-to-be graduate engineers visiting the company’s facilities this year, he was blown away by the enthusiasm with which these prospective employees embraced the activity. “We got such amazing feedback,” he says. “The students had been on visits to technology companies in the past, but they said adding a volunteer experience really shows the values of Baker Hughes — I’m still getting notes about it being a great initiative.”

Based on the southeast coast of Mexico, Baker Hughes’ Ciudad del Carmen facility is the LATAM regional center and the company’s largest facility in Mexico to support offshore operations. ‘’We hire about 50 interns annually there and about 300 in the whole region’’ says Bracho. He was organizing the day for students visiting from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) and Universidad Juarez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT), when he heard a few colleagues talking about a plastics-collection group that sells what they gather to a recycler on the outskirts of Mexico City, and donates the funds to support children being treated for cancer.

Students visit the Baker Hughes Ciudad del Carmen facility in Mexico

The money is used to buy medicines, and to help the families who bring their children to city hospitals. These families often live on the streets nearby without the means to even pay for food.

Bracho decided to have the students, accompanied by around 18 Baker Hughes employees, clean up and sort the garbage at Playa Norte, one of the local beaches. Among the debris, which Bracho says is washed in by the sea or left by people who visit the beach, they collected 70 lb (32 kg) of plastic. The recyclers, non-government organization Fundación AYABS, gave a talk to the students about how it is working to solve the dual challenges of accumulating waste and the cost of healthcare for kids with cancer. “It’s absolutely a win-win,” says Bracho.

Students and Baker Hughes employees volunteer at beach clean event in Mexico

In almost every jurisdiction where Baker Hughes operates, government resources are stretched, community facilities may be crumbling, and people are in need. To bring to life its value of caring for communities wherever it operates, the company has programs in place that recognize and award grants for employee volunteering. On top of that, the Baker Hughes Foundation financially supports employee-nominated causes, matching employee donations to recognized charities.