One by One

After successfully supporting 2,200 life-changing medical surgeries for children, Amway Vietnam is expanding its reach.

In a new partnership with the Department of Child Protection and Care under the Ministry of Labor, children and families in Thanh Hoa will receive medical aid, educational support, vocational and agricultural training.

Thanh Hoa is an economically-challenged province in the North Central region of Vietnam with a large area, rough terrain, an under-developed transportation system and a high rate of households in poverty. Thanh Hoa also has a significant number of children who are abandoned, disabled, HIV-infected or dioxin-infected.

Efforts to help children in Thanh Hoa have achieved some success, but there is still much to do to stabilize the community and provide opportunities for children.

Through the Amway-Ministry of Labor partnership, three communities will be targeted with phases of data collection and need assessment, raising awareness, and providing direct support.

Amway Vietnam has committed 3 billion Dong ($144,000 USD) to kick off the programs, and expects to support approximately 2,000 children. The partnership kicked off in November, and the work is already underway.

Learn more and follow our progress on the Amway Vietnam One by One Facebook page.

Thanks to Dang Ngoc Thu Ha for sharing this story.

Take note. Volunteerism is evolving, both in the United States and around the world.

In the US, what was once just a thing you did for your neighbor, your school or your congregation, has become much more formalized.

Some high schools require it for graduation and most colleges consider it a major factor on an application. You can now count volunteer time as experience on your resume. Many of those out of work volunteer to exercise their skills or build up networks. And those building their careers often volunteer to gain experience in a different environment. The New York Times called it a “Gateway to a Career.” It can certainly be a consideration when we hire employees at Amway headquarters, and most of our college interns are seasoned volunteers.

There is even a standardized value placed on volunteer time by the Independent Sector: $21.79. Now nonprofits can even quantify it as the value of a donation. It means more resources are devoted to critical issues, and people can sometimes provide more impact than money alone. In 2010, Amway volunteers logged 1 million volunteer hours. If taken in US value (although many of our hours are global), this equates to more than $20,000,000 in donation value.

We’ve begun to segment the types of volunteerism. There is individual volunteering, like school mentors. Group volunteering takes on projects like building playgrounds and cleaning up beaches. Skill-based brings expertise to improve the effectiveness of a charitable organization. Nonprofit board service means dedicated, strategic support at the leadership level. We exercise every one of these types of volunteering with Amway employees and distributors, and see significant benefits to our employees and to the community.

Globally, volunteerism is picking up the pace. For countries that have traditionally relied on governments to be the sole provider of social services, it is a relatively new concept. Yet it is gaining traction as a way to improve communities and help the disadvantaged, particularly when the economic downturn means cutbacks in government services. In Russia, we’ve had to introduce the concept to Amway distributors, but it’s taken off in a big way from there. In China, where the United Nations says perceptions of volunteerism are advancing rapidly, Amway has built a network of more than 68,000 volunteers – the largest volunteer group in the country, involved in everything from education to disaster relief.

The business community sees only growth in engaging employee volunteers. According to a recent Forbes survey of 311 global executives, most from multibillion-dollar companies, more than two-thirds say that they believe their focus on volunteerism will increase over the next three years and that volunteerism is an essential part of their company’s leadership development strategy. Harvard Business Review also recently acknowledged the important role that volunteerism plays in making corporate social responsibility a focal point for business.

So is volunteering becoming institutionalized? Perhaps. And this many not be a bad thing.

While we find valuable and innovative ways to use our time to help improve the world – and improve ourselves – the hours that won’t get logged are the ones where we help the elderly neighbor next door, or the co-worker who is battling an illness, or the friend who lost their job.

As long as we follow our hearts as much as our strategies, then the changing role of volunteerism will be a very good thing.

Holding popcorn and sitting in front of a large screen to enjoy a movie may not such a big deal for children in urban communities. However, it can be a daydream for children who live in remote areas of China.

This winter, the daydream came true for 5,000 students from 25 boarding schools in the Sichuan Province.

Amway volunteers helped organized the Ba Ba Film Festival, named for the flat, open spaces where the films are shown.

Behind the scenes, Amway volunteers spent twelve days traveling through the mountains from place to place, carrying heavy equipment to set up the shows.

The volunteers dedicated themselves to the idea that “every drop of sweat could nurture a seed in a child’s mind, and help them grow faster to see the beauty of outside world.”

Thanks to Rowley Luo for sharing this story.

Heliópolis is located in the southeast part of São Paulo, in Brazil. The community is divided into 14 plots called “glebas,” where tens of thousands of people live in crowded spaces. It was considered one of the largest slums, or “favelas” in Brazil, but through a process of urbanization, it is improving and now has the status of a neighborhood district.

Amway volunteers have been helping to speed up the development of Heliópolis by remodeling homes for families in need, working with Habitat for Humanity. Last month, 36 Amway Business Owners, employees and suppliers joined Habitat to remodel 15 homes, working alongside the home owners.

Here is a short video documenting their efforts:

Thanks to Nancy Cortez for sharing this story.

Amway has elevated its activity level for children in India over the past few weeks. There has been a flurry of action – mobilizing employees and distributors, as well as elected officials and nonprofit organizations. Here are a few highlights:

APRIL 1: After a visit to Amway headquarters earlier this year, Deepalaya School leaders asked for more education about direct selling for some of their older students. Business Development Manager Kanwardeep Narula gladly volunteered, leading a session that taught students about the socioeconomic impact of the direct selling industry, and how a person-to-person business is owned and operated.

APRIL 20: After sponsoring a FICCI Ladies Organization session recognizing visually impaired women who have achieved great things, Amway employees welcomed the award recipient, Dr. Kanchan Gaba, who is Secretary General of National Association for the Blind, a long time partner of the Amway Opportunity Foundation.

MAY 1: In honor of International Labor Day, Amway worked with AASHIANA to create a forum to discuss how government, the courts, citizens and the business community can work together to eradicate child labor. Local leaders and dignitaries – including the Minister for Labour and Employment, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development — discussed strategies and tactics to make a difference for the children of India.

MAY 5: Amway once again coordinated a day of action for its distributors and employees at its 64 partner orphanages across the country. While support is focused on basic needs throughout the year, this day is an opportunity for volunteers and children to have fun together, with gift giving, entertainment and laughter.

MAY 6: Amway entered into a partnership with the Balaji Charitable Trust to re-establish the Shri Radha Banke Bihari Hospital in Vrindavan – one of the oldest cities in the country. Upgraded maternity and gynecological facilities and equipment will meet the needs of local mothers and their children.

On the outskirts of the Eastern Anatolian city of Elazığ, an area with a high population of low income families, a brand new preschool is taking shape. 

For years, Amway Europe has combined efforts of Amway Business Owners, employees and the company to support projects through the Amway One by One campaign.

From direct donations to the sales of pins and mugs, these efforts have added up to big results – this year producing a new preschool in an area of high need, the third one built with support from Amway in Turkey.

The preschool in Elazığ should be open in time for school in September, and will accommodate 100 children.

Thanks to all of the ABOs and employees across our 29 countries affiliates in Europe for your hard work and generosity!

The Amway One by One Campaign for Children is perhaps our most visible corporate social responsibility initiative. After all, it even has its own blog.

But our role in local and global communities extends beyond Amway One by One. Here is a video that was released with our 2011 Global Citizenship Report last month. It highlights the broader efforts of our company, our employees, our distributors and our many partners around the world.

In South Korea, we recently met a group of Amway business leaders that meets faithfully every month at a small office in downtown Seoul.

But the strategies they discuss are not about growing the business. They are looking for the best causes to help children in need.

Leonard and Esther Kim launched the World Wide Charity for Children two years ago, and called on their top leaders to join the board, and invest in the mission. As Amway Founders Crown Ambassadors who have reached the highest levels of accomplishment in the business, they know that helping others is a privilege—and an expectation—of success.

While each of the leaders has skills and drive that have made them successful, they know that they don’t have experience in nonprofit work. That’s why they meet each month and listen to their Amway networks across the country, taking ideas and suggestions for what children’s issues they should address next.

Later in the day, the leaders leave the office and put on their volunteer vests, joining other Amway Business Owners (ABOs) and employees to help out at the Dong Myung Child Welfare Center, which serves the needs of orphaned children.

The volunteers clean blankets, play games, host a birthday party and stock the pond with new goldfish. They also present a check for $5,000 to support the needs of the Center.

It is not uncommon to find Amway volunteers at this and other Child Welfare Centers around the country. Amway has been a longtime partner, and Leonard and Esther have inspired many more to get involved through their call to action.

The next day is a business meeting for more than 25,000 ABOs and their customers. The efforts of the World Wide Charity for Children are woven throughout the day.

It starts with a cookie drive early in the day. The cookies are made by ABOs, and infused with protein powder and other healthy ingredients.

During an intermission, volunteers pass out organ donation registration forms. Approximately 2,500 people sign up as new donors.

The final stage event of the day is not a motivational sendoff. Instead, Leonard and Ether take the stage with their top leaders to deliver a check representing the cookie sales – more than $30,000.

We are excited to see the groundswell of excitement for these efforts in Korea, and are proud to be partners with Leonard and Esther Kim. 

Coming soon will be a video that tells more of the story. Thanks to Yang-Hee Cho, Yong-Bom Lee, Sang-Doo Kim, and the team at Amway Korea for their support on this project.

Last week, Amway leaders presented 700 new lapdesks to students at Amatikwe and Bhekilanga primary schools in Durban, South Africa.

While the gift was presented by our Amway South Africa offices, the funds were actually provided by our leaders in Amway UK who heard about the Lapdesk Project and wanted to help.

In South Africa, there is a shortage of desks, and space, in local schools. The lapdesks fill a critical need for students, and serve as a quick resource of letter, number and shape charts, with an emergency hotline number.

Thanks to Makhaya Manie for sharing this story.

During our research for the publication of our 2011 Global Citizenship Report, we noted a lot of activity around disaster response. Many natural catastrophes devastated the communities of our friends and colleagues last year.

What hasn’t received nearly as much attention is an emphasis around prevention.

In India, the Bihar State (adjacent to Nepal) is recognized as a multi-disaster-prone territory with a history of moderate to severe earthquakes.

Amway India is partnering with the Bihar Disaster Management Authority to help residents take measures to mitigate the risk of a future earthquake, and using the Bihar Centenary Day celebration to create awareness.

They installed posters and created pamphlets, teaching local leaders about earthquake resistant construction technology and teaching the general public basic tips for what to do in the event of an earthquake.

While these efforts may not make global headlines like an actual disaster, they may in the end be more impactful and save even more lives.

Thanks to Raj Narain for sharing this story.