Touching hearts and minds to change lives

Por: Patricia Olivares

“Something I’ve learned is that the most important value that a human being has is time . If someone dedicates their time to me, it’s wonderful, and giving your time to other people means you can help others”. That is how you define being a volunteer; Jesús Antonio Hernandez Lagunes, Route and Market Supervisor of Mobility ADO, who, with his 32 years of experience in this company, has faced situations that have changed his life.

Antonio started officially as a volunteer in 2017 in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, with the ADO Foundations. Still, he already supported various causes in his work environment “without having the label of volunteer, because you you realize that the most important thing is to help those who need it”. Since then, he has been part of many activities, such as collecting PET and plastic caps, beach cleaning and turtle release, support in the reading workshop, promotion of university degrees and health actions.

The cleaning of the Madresal Beach and the release of turtles, organized by Gledy Montoya Escobar, Head of Volunteering for Chiapas and Central America at ADO Foundation, was a moment that changed his life she shared this activity with her youngest daughter, who still remembers this trip. “My daughter was able to raise awareness since she was a child and was able to give this message to my children to help without expecting anything in return; I think being a volunteer says it all.”

Ado Foundation has a volunteer program that provides opportunities to their collaborators to carry out different activities. One of the advantages that Antonio sees in Mobility ADO is that, as a transport company, it facilitates the movement of people and, with it, the help they can offer as volunteers.

During the most challenging moments of COVID-19, thanks to the volunteering of the ADO Foundation, Amextra Beekeepers had the opportunity to transport their honey to Mexico City, as the economic crisis further affected communities with high marginalization. “In the end, I believe that when we join to help, things can be easier so that people who need it have a little boost to what they are already doing.”

Antonio remembers that having a closer look at the people that produced honey in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, caught his attention to the importance of promoting his products to enter in the market:

“When we join forces, that grain of sand from Amextra and Mobility ADO, we make it possible, because sending their products would be very expensive and they wouldn’t be able to do it. For example, four us, it could be our activity, but for them, it is a change of life.”

Thanks to all these experiences that Antonio Lagunes has lived as a volunteer in Mobility ADO through ADO Foundation, he has been able to reaffirm his work and his permanence in the company because, with 32 years of work, he has become an exemplary volunteer for other collaborators. He has taken his message to more people and has made this volunteer Network grow inside and outside the Institution, in spite of adversity.

“Volunteering helps you see your surroundings differently; as a volunteer, you are always observing people and watching what can be done. It makes you more observative; for example, I was diagnosed with diabetes a year and a half ago. it’s not easy, but I took it in the right way. Being a volunteer changes your perspective in the face of adversity, like how to act because it cahnges your vision of life.”

With great enthusiasm and encouragement, Antonio invites more people to volunteer. He recalls that when he went to fill his bottle of water, and saw that they were throwing away the plastic lids, he spoke to the owner of the place, who invited him to collect those lids to donate to a cancer association. So he was able to add one more volunteer. The Trenzathlon was an activity he didn’t know about, but it impressed him a lot, and now he is more sensitive to the issue. When he saw the therapy for Children in Teleton, he thanked God for being able to contribute from his work to the people who have a family member with a disability.

The promotion of university degrees is an activity that Antonio is very passionate about, since he started working very young and could not finish his studies, but in 2019 he investigated and found the Distance Modality at the Autonomous University of Chiapas and began to study for a degree in Statistics and Information Systems, because he really likes mathematics.

“There are so many things that young people today are not allowed to continue in school, because they need to work to support the family. There are many valid excuses such as time and money; but with this scheme of the university some are no longer so valid because they are more self-taught. So this was wonderful and it has been my banner, my way of saying: Yes, we can! Volunteering is encouraging and strengthening others”.

With a GPA of 9.41, Antonio is in the process of obtaining his degree, and now he is promoting distance learning degrees as a volunteer at Mobility ADO. Still, he is also promoting this invitation outside the company since two of his friends have already signed up.

Finally, Antonio Lagunes is grateful for the institutional trust in him to be a facilitator and that they allow him, as a volunteer, to link with other institutions and associations.

“When we say we are ADO Foundation volunteers, we are also involved with an institution; therefore, being a volunteer is a fraternal commitment to improve community life, touching minds and hearts, changing lives”.

Congratulations, Antonio Lagunes, for your effort, passion and dedication as a volunteer. Thank you very much, ADO Foundation, for making these stories of solidarity possible.