When a steady stream of people began fleeing the crisis in Ukraine, Aliona Nica knew she needed to help. On Saturdays, she began going to the train station near her home in Romania to meet arriving refugees and serve as a volunteer translator. Soon she’d gathered 20 more Adobe employees to join her.
Nica has been organizing philanthropic activities with her Adobe colleagues since she joined the EMEA Sales Operations team back in 2015 — her current role is global marketing finance ops specialist, based in the Adobe Romania office.
Nica’s inspiration for doing good, she says, comes from her childhood. Growing up in a small village in Moldova, Nica experienced war and watched as her parents struggled to give their children a better education and more opportunities. “If you’ve been there, you’re driven to give back,” she explains. “And here at Adobe I can turn my ideas into actions that make a difference in our community. It is what lights me up.”
One of Nica’s first philanthropic projects at Adobe was a collaboration with ShoeBox. She organized colleagues to donate holiday gifts for children in need. “We managed to collect over 50 boxes and deliver them to the partner charity,” she remembers.
Another favorite project was the Take a Child to a Movie campaign. For the event time, Nica collaborated with the Innocenti Foundation, a nonprofit that helps support children from low-income families. She organized Adobe volunteers to help take 50 children for a wonderful day at the movies. As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, Adobe also gave the organization a $5,000 grant.
For International Volunteering Day this past December, Nica helped organize 20 Adobe colleagues to volunteer at Climb Again, an organization that empowers special needs children through rock climbing, By volunteering, the group secured a $2,000 Adobe grant for Climb Again.
Coming up this March, Nica and ten of her colleagues will help teach basic Romanian to Ukrainian refugees in partnership with Asociatia Zi de Bine.
Over the last eight years, Nica says she’s gotten unwavering support from her teams. “I think my enthusiasm resonates with my colleagues and managers, who’ve been on board with every volunteering activity I’ve suggested.”