One by One

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.

Amway Independent Business Owner Wil Loewer has been a motorcyclist for most of his life.

“When we got married, he threw me on the back of a motorcycle and said, ‘Let’s go!’” laughs his wife and fellow IBO, Suzanne Loewer.

The Loewers channeled their passion for motorcycling into the Louisiana Ride for Kids, a motorcycling event held in support of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.

Last year, 150 people hopped onto motorcycles and into sidecars to enjoy an hour-long ride through scenic central Louisiana. The official stars of the event – four children diagnosed with cancer – were given VIP treatment for the ride. The ride raised nearly $23,000.

“These kids’ lives change after a brain tumor diagnosis,” says Will. “When they ride, they get to forget all that and just have fun. Their smiles make everything worthwhile.”

Read more here at Amway.net. Thanks to Marsha Champion for sharing this story.

Amway distributors from Australia and New Zealand shared their celebration with the local community at the annual Achievers incentive trip in Thailand last month. In addition to donating sports equipment, distributor leaders donated their time to help renovate a local school in Phuket. They volunteered more than 1,000 hours painting dormitories, restoring the sports field and building a new welcome garden.

As Michial Coldwell, General Manager of Amway Australia & New Zealand shared, “Hundreds of Amway distributors from across Australia & New Zealand have qualified and worked really hard to come to Phuket on a great business trip, yet they are here in a school in Phuket giving up their time in order to help paint and renovate this school which was affected by the tsunami. This is all about unifying people across cultures to accomplish one common goal: helping children.”

Click here to see the full photo album. Thanks to Antonia Krunes for sharing this story, and congratulations to all of our Achievers!

All over the world, children dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, pilots and government leaders. The children of Johannesburg, have these aspirations too, but they also have many obstacles along the way.
One of the chief obstacles is a basic one: they have no desks or tables at school or in their homes where they can do their studies. This means many students do their writing on hard, uneven, and often dirty floors.

Amway leaders in Europe and South Africa recognized this need and are responding in partnership with the Tutudesk Campaign. Named after Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the project aims to help 20 million South African and African children by providing portable school desks by 2015.

Tutudesks provide a stable work surface for impoverished schools which have little or no permanent facilities. The hand-held desks display mathematics signs and can be carried to the next classroom or at home for homework. Teachers report a 69% improvement in handwriting skills and 77% reported improved levels of concentration and motivation among students with Tutudesks.

From Scandinavia to South Africa and from Portugal to Russia, Amway, its distributors and employees have been raising funds to support this simple but impactful idea. The first 3,500 Tutudesks were presented in the townships of Orange Farm, Tembisa, Daveyton and Mamelodi in March, and another delivery is expected in April.

Thanks to Karin Schmid for sharing this story.

Over the past ten years, we’ve learned how a child’s future can change if you just provide a little help.

Yesterday, Amway leaders in the United States took the next step to empowering our youth, by giving them the opportunity, and the inspiration to make a difference themselves.

It’s called We Day, and you can’t buy a ticket for it. Teens can only earn admission to this amazing event by mobilizing civic change in their local communities, and through global projects.

Amway helped to bring We Day to the United States for the first time, in partnership with Free the Children, an organization started by the actions of a twelve-year-old boy from Canada who, now an adult, champions this initiative with celebrities, companies, and most importantly, our youth.

Amway Independent Business Owners and their children attended the event yesterday, which was an overwhelming inspiration that is sure to drive more action, and more positive change, at home and around the world.

Amway also used this opportunity to issue its own challenge to youth in the US to share their own projects with us for a chance to win some great prizes, including a trip to the next We Day.

For parents of a child with a terminal illness or long-term special needs, life takes on a whole new set of prorities. It also can mean a tangled web of doctor visits, medicines, insurance companies and expenses – all of which  overwhem parents who just want the best for thier child.

Twelve years ago, two parents in Slovenia struggled through a terminal illness with their child, and emerged with a determination to help other families like themselves. They created the Foundation to Help Children (Ustanova Fundacija za Pomoc Otrokom Foundation), which provides financial support for medical treatment, as well as mentoring, financial counseling and even legal advice for families who have a child with a terminal illness or extreme special needs.

Amway and its employees and business owners in Slovenia have embraced the Foundation, and each year raise more than US$10,000 for the cause. They also use their voices to advocate for more support and more awareness for struggling families.

At a beautiful event at the Slovenia National Gallery this month, Amway Slovenia General Manager Hedi Kovacs Resnik took the stage with the President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, to invite other partners to support the Foundation.

The leaders encouraged the attendees to purchase beautiful art pieces and Swaroski crystals to raise funds for the cause, and Amway Slovenia became the proud owner of a colorful painting appropriately titled, The Energy of Love.

 Thanks to Sarah Wellner for sharing this story.

For orphaned teenagers in the Ukraine, the future is uncertain.

Recent surveys in five cities across the country revealed that, while teenagers at boarding schools for orphaned youth are equipped with basic education, they have no clear vision of what they will do after school. Those surveyed expressed low initiative for shaping their own futures, and high expectations for receiving ongoing support from public institutions.

Amway and Amway Business Owners (ABOs) in the Ukraine are stepping up to help. Through a project organized by the Association of New Economic Education, and supported by Amway Ukraine, Erste Bank Ukraine and the Alexander Feldman Charity Foundation, a group of 16 ABOs were recently trained to teach a course on Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship.

Upon completion, these Amway volunteers become “Ambassadors” of useful new knowledge and life skills for children and teenagers in social and educational institutions across the country – with the program aimed at serving 5,000 youth.

The courses focus on practical assignments rather than lectures. Children learn personal money management, family budgets, and financial and consumer safety. The courses are designed to develop an entrepreneurial mindset among the students, and a clear vision of the opportunities that await them as they become responsible, empowered adults.

Thanks to Elena Yakymchuk and Sarah Wellner for sharing this story. 

Amway Philippines recently inaugurated a newly relocated distribution center in Davao City. To kick off the celebration, more than 1,000 Amway Independent Business Owners and guests gathered at the site to participate in the 1K@Amway Fun Run, one of several happening throughout the country where a portion of the race proceeds go to support the Amway One by One Campaign for Children.

Amway One by One is an important part of our work in the Philippines, with a focus on children’s rights, literacy and values education. In partnership with the Department of Education’s Adopt-A-School program, Amway has helped to build reading corners and donated books to several schools in the country, particularly in areas affected by the typhoons last year.

After the Fun Run in Davao City, Amway turned 150 storybooks as part of its book donation drive to Lacson Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Ayag. In the words of Country Manager Leni Olmedo, “We are reaching out to more Filipinos by providing them with opportunities that will help them make their lives better and likewise empower children.”

Thanks to Michelle Ochoa and Rex Lelata for sharing this story.

We have reached an important milestone.

The Amway One by One Campaign for Children has been transforming lives for 10 years.

What started as a corporate initiative in 2003 has become a grassroots movement of Amway distributors and employees helping children around the world. While Amway affiliates build alliances with local partners, it is the 3 million distributors and 20,000 employees who have helped us to bring our efforts for children to scale.

At the end of 2012, we have counted 10 million children who have been positively impacted through Amway One by One.

Actions include building hospital playrooms in Russia, enabling better nutrition at schools in rural China, providing customized bikes for children with disabilities in Australia, constructing homes in Guatemala and mentoring urban youth in the United States. There are more examples in every region where Amway does business.

Amway One by One has always been about inspiring and encouraging individual actions for children in need. Now, looking back over ten years, we see a beautiful mosaic of hope, inspiration and generosity.

Thanks to everyone who has joined Amway to build better lives for children in our communities.

This year, we celebrate these accomplishments and recognize the work of so many Amway people. But we also challenge ourselves to deepen our efforts, and will close the year with a demonstration of collective support for children in need, around the world.

Our global review concludes in Southeast Asia, where the work for children is as diverse as the many Amway markets in that region.

Amway Australia continued to roll out the partnerships identified during its 40^th anniversary celebration year, featuring programs like neonatal equipment donations, sports equipment for children with special needs (delivered by cricket superstar Adam Gilchrist), and therapy for children with Autism. Amway distributors on an incentive trip to Fiji also took time to help renovate a flood damaged school, with more than 300 participating.

A partnership in Indonesia that started six years ago was still going strong in 2012. After a devastating earthquake struck a remote area in 2006, Amway Indonesia partnered with local employees and distributors to focus on rebuilding two elementary schools. The partnership continues to last, as Amway employees and distributors support the ongoing education at these two schools, providing uniforms, books and shoes for the students, and visiting once each year.

In Malaysia, Amway leaders launched a new partnership to help children in remote areas learn through the act of play, using musical therapy. An organization called Hands Percussion started the Balik Kampung (Homecoming) as a way to support local communities. Amway distributors are taking part as both volunteers and contributors to make the program a success.

Amway Philippines celebrated its 15 year anniversary and marked the occasion by reading and telling stories to young students to improve their literacy skills, and to build a passion for reading. Over the past several years, Amway Philippines has donated books and mobilized volunteers to read and tell stories.

Amway Singapore continued its support of the Singapore Children’s Society to enhance self-esteem, improve math skills, explore personal interests and translate life values into daily values for young children.

Two innovative programs were launched in Thailand last year, both focused on literacy. The first utilized a phone app to allow users to send books to remote areas of the country. The second was a mobile library, 70 of them to be exact, that were sent to schools across the country by Amway.

In Vietnam, Amway extended its support for children with health care needs by partnering with the government to provide medical aid, educational support, vocational and agricultural training in the economically challenged Thanh Hoa province.

Expect to see more in 2013, with some big announcements coming later this week!