Today is #GivingTuesday – an international movement that celebrates the power that people and organizations have to transform communities around the world through acts of generosity. At BD, we want to take the opportunity to recognize some of the people and organizations that inspire us to make an impact around the world.

In partnership with Planet Water Foundation, today a team of BD volunteers are in Mexico installing a water tower that will bring clean drinking water to 2,500 community members in a village outside Guadalajara. BD employees in India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Puerto Rico have participated in similar clean water initiatives over the last two years through the Project Water partnership.

Over the course of the year, our employees are engaged in individual and team-based volunteer activities around the world. Just a few examples include:

This year, BD employees from our facility in Puerto Rico helped revitalize a former school in Yabucoa, PR into a community center. Last month, the program was recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative as a Commitment to Action to advance recovery and promote long-term resiliency in the region following Hurricane Maria in 2017.

For the last two years, members of the BD legal team from around the world have volunteered their time and expertise to provide free legal services to vulnerable populations, including veterans, individuals applying for naturalization or asylum, at-risk youth and immigrating children.

BD volunteers from both U.S. coasts took part in Habitat for Humanity projects to help build homes for families in need. The builds took place near the company’s facility sites in Queensbury, New York and Northern California.

BD employees in Plymouth, UK, volunteered their time to work with young women from a local all-female high school to explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers by working with them on a unique challenge – designing, building and racing an electric race car. BD volunteers advised the young women how to assemble the car, manufacture the body work and test the car prior to a race that took place in early July at Predannack Airfield in Cornwall.

These are just a handful of examples of the many ways BD employees join together to improve the communities where they live and work, all around the world. In honor of Giving Tuesday, we recognize and thank all the BD employees, worldwide, who find creative ways to help others through the gift of their voices, their time, their financial contributions and their talents.