One by One

This month, it’s all about our top Amway leaders from around the world called the Founders Council.

They met in our hometown this week and were recognized for all the work they have done for children over the last 10 years through Amway One by One.

Looking back, one of our earliest partnerships with to Amway leaders was through a pan-European alliance with UNICEF. Dating back to the early 2000s, this program helped to immunize more than 90,000 children who may not otherwise survive exposure to diseases that affect young children.

In 2007, we traveled with a group of Amway leaders who served as UNICEF ambassadors. Here is a video pulled from the archives that is still as powerful and inspiring today as it was six years ago.

Next week, 200 of the very top Amway leaders from around the world, called the Amway Founders Council, will meet in West Michigan.

Members of the Yager family will be found among the Founders Council ranks, as they were some of the earliest Amway distributor leaders.

We had a chance to visit them last year in Charlotte, North Carolina, and see their values in action through the second generation of family leadership, in support of Easter Seals. This video tells the story:

With a program as diverse as Amway One by One, the best way to tell the big story of is by telling lots of little stories.

We now have all of those stories gathered in one place – one site – which includes country-level stories, videos and newsroom features. It’s at www.amwayonebyone.com.

Please check it out and give us your feedback. You can also “like” and “share” the best stories you find so we can inspire more action by Amway people around the world.

And look to the site for exciting announcements in the coming months as we build toward November 20 … and the next ten years of helping children, one by one.

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are critical to his or her long-term health and physical development, particularly in regards to nutrition.

A recent report by UNICEF reveals that 1 in 4 children under five suffer from chronic undernutrition, and that damage caused by undernutrition is largely irreversible.

Through our expertise in nutrition through Amway’s Nutrilite vitamins and supplements, we continue to expand out Nutrilite Little Bits initiative to address this need, and to introduce our plant-based micronutrient through nonprofit partners in more countries in the near future.

The first step toward action is awareness. Today, we are more aware of the issue than ever. It will take many partners from the public and private sector working together to make sure children reach their potential, with a good nutritional foundation in their first 1,000 days.

While the bulk of Amway employees in the United States are at our headquarters in West Michigan, we have quite a few at our Nutrilite offices in Buena Park, California.

These employees are highly engaged in their local community, and were recently recognized for their efforts by being nominated for the Spirit of Volunteerism Awards, which acknowledges individual, group and corporate team volunteers for their dedicated service to Orange County.

Here are some of the employee activities that took place in Buena Park (Orange County) last year:

MONTHLY PLAYDATES: Hosted 8 playdates with children at a local shelter, spending quality time with more than 100 children ages 2 months to 14 years.

ANNUAL HEALTH AND FITNESS DAY: Gave their time teaching 42 children ages 5 to 17 the importance of staying fit and exercising daily.

MONTHLY COOKING EVENTS: Hosted 7 events to teach 78 teenagers basic, healthy cooking skills.

ANNUAL FOSTER FAMILY PICNIC: Set up and prepared activities for a foster family picnic, providing Amway products and game prizes.

ANNUAL SEASONS OF GIVING: Collected 340 pairs of socks and 3 barrels of warm clothing.

NUTRILITE SITE TOURS: Hosted 11 site tours, using our expertise to teach 156 children the importance of nutrition.

Thanks to all of our employees for their dedication to caring in their local communities.

“Sweetie, are you behaving well? Mommy is coming home to see you soon.”

When the 9-year-old girl Shiyi saw her mother through the video camera on a computer, she was so surprised, she could barely speak.

Shiyi is a “left-behind” girl in a remote village in Guangdong Province. Her parents had to leave her and her brother with grandparents when they set off to find work in the big city. Their story is not unique to Chinese migrant families, which number in the tens of millions.

Yet thanks to the Friendly Community Project for Rural Children initiated by Guangdong Women’s Federation and the Amway Charity Foundation, Shiyi can see and talk with her parents online in the Children’s Center.

This is one of the 26 village communities that the project is to cover. Approximately 100,000 children will benefit from this project.

And the help doesn’t stop with technology. Social workers and Amway volunteers will mentor children as they adjust to being away from their parents, and special assistance will be offered during the holidays.

Through these efforts, the world will be a little more comforting and hopeful for children like Shiyi.

Thanks to Rowley Luo and Zining Wang for sharing this story.

It’s been a great week for the Amway One by One Campaign for Children.

We were invited to speak about the long-term success of our program to some of the biggest and most active companies in the world, at the International Corporate Citizenship Conference, organized by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.

We talked about how Amway One by One is organized as a global campaign, but is implemented with flexibility among the local country affiliates. We talked about how it has come alive over the last year by many grassroots actions that are driven by Amway distributors and employees.

At the same event, Amway was recognized at the Corporate Citizenship Film Festival as one of the best CSR films of the year. Thanks to everyone who voted for us to receive this prestigious recognition!

We were in good company at the conference. Representatives from Panera spoke about their innovative stores that allow people to pay what they can. The CEO of New Balance talked about its commitment to employees and honest, local manufacturing. The CFO of Target talked about how they work with police to make their neighborhoods safer, and even handle some local forensic cases. UPS representatives talked about how their drivers are working with schools to teach teens about safe driving.

According to Edelman, 87% of consumers worldwide want business to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as its business interests. Companies are responding to this challenge, and finding ways to use their expertise and their values to help with a range of social issues.

It’s great to put Amway initiatives on display, both to elevate the visibility of the work of our people, but also to lend our years of experience in the area of CSR to inspire our peers to deeper commitments.

For our readers in the United States, April 21-27 is National Volunteer Week, a time to recognize and honor those of you who donate your time, energy and skills in the community because you have a sincere desire to make a difference.

Amway North America is recognizing and rewarding one volunteer each day, with a $500 donation to the charity of the winner’s choice, for a total of seven winners throughout the week.

It’s not too late! The contest is open to Amway Independent Business Owners over the age of 18 and no purchase is necessary. Please see Official Rules for details and visit the Website to make a submission.

In Ada, we had to close down our headquarters due to flooding. In Boston, we’ve been watching the news of the bombings and making sure all Amway people are safe.

On the other side of the world, a 7.0 earthquake hit Ya’an in Sichuan Province of China. It killed 186 people, injured more than 11,000 and about 383,000 people are directly affected by the disaster.

Our Amway shop in a nearby city was closed for the day, but fortunately none of our Amway distributors or employees were on the casualty list in Ya’an.

Amway China is responding swiftly to the disaster, donating 5 million RMB ($800,000 USD) to disaster relief efforts through the Amway Charity Foundation. The Foundation has opened an account to receive donations, at www.amwayfoundation.org.

Our thoughts go out to everyone affected over the past week in big and small ways.

Every year, we gather stories, statistics and progress of corporate social responsibility at Amway. We put this information into an annual report to share with our people, and the general public.

The 2012 Amway Corporate Social Responsibility Report was just released today, and can be downloaded here or viewed in our newsroom.

The Amway One by One Campaign for Children is a big part of our story, but not the only part. There are many things to share, and much more to do as we look to the future.