One by One

Last week, we received an update from SOS Children’s Villages on the groundbreaking of a village of homes for orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti. This news comes nearly three years since a massive earthquake killed 200,000 and displaced millions of Haitians.

For some, three years is just too long to wait. But major disasters call for a different strategic approach to humanitarian support, particularly from companies.

Ever since the Southeast Asian Tsunami in 2004, we have put systems in place to monitor and respond to major disasters, especially in communities where we have employees and distributors. We were among the first companies to respond to the Sichuan earthquake in China, the tsunami in Japan, and the recent storms in the US.

Haiti is no exception. Amway and its people raised more than $1 million for relief efforts, primarily through the American Red Cross, and we used our corporate planes to transport medical and humanitarian aid professionals immediately to the affected areas. But we also set aside funds for long-term rebuilding through Amway One by One.

It’s easy to walk away once the emotion settles and the cameras go away. But that is often when our help and long-term commitment is needed the most. Few may realize that the effects of the earthquake in Haiti are still felt, and more than 350,000 still live in tent camps.

SOS Children’s Village has done amazing work in building partnerships to establish an additional village in Haiti, a place already known for difficult land ownership rights and in additional bureaucratic turmoil when the earthquake took away many staff and records.

Today, we see the investment pay off, and we see a foundation that will serve many children into the future, providing a family environment and a future for those who need it most.

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.

Continuing our journey around the world to review the best programs of 2012, we look at two island countries that are among Amway’s top producing markets. Both are innovative in their approach to CSR and helping children.

In Japan, Amway continued to lead in advocacy efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect through the Orange Project during the holidays. Amway was one of the first companies to vocalize this issue, and continues to mobilize its distributors to action.

Amway Japan is also supporting two innovative projects that help children in the greatest need. The first uses a specially trained dog to offer therapeutic services to children in pediatric hospitals. The second is a specialized home for foster children – the first corporate partnership of its kind with the Japanese government and local charitable organizations.

In South Korea, Amway kicked off the Green Frogs Creative Thinker Project, an amazing collaboration between nonprofit, government and university partners, coordinated by Amway and supported by Amway distributors and employees with volunteering and donations. The program works with underprivileged youth and teaches them to solve problems in innovative ways.

We also had an incredible opportunity to visit Leonard and Esther Kim, who are among the most successful Amway distributors in the world. Their success in the Amway business inspired them to form the World Wide Children’s Charity, which mobilizes Amway distributors from across South Korea to help locally, and around the world.

Here are a few ways that Amway people are making during the holidays:

We kicked off the holiday season at Amway world headquarters in Ada, Michigan, with a talent show of Christmas songs, dances and performances. Amway co-founder Rich DeVos read the Christmas story, as he has for many years.

Amway colleagues in Tokyo, Japan celebrate Christmas with an orange ribbon tree lighting ceremony with Santa. Amway Japan collects orange ribbons to raise awareness of child abuse, and makes donations for every orange ribbon received to focus on prevention and treatment of child abuse.

More than 150 Amway employee volunteers organized Santa’s Secret Workshop events for 500 students at Burton Elementary school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, students could find affordable gifts for their parents, and volunteers helped them shop and wrap them up for Christmas.

Amway partnered with Ulsan Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation and Amway Business Owner volunteers to organize a Christmas event for children from low-income families in South Korea.

In New York City, Amway announced a donation of $300,000 in gifts for children through the Today Show Toy Drive on national television.

In China, Amway will sponsor the fourth New Year charity concert at the Xinjiang People’s Hall with proceeds from the ticket sales supporting schools for deaf children.

Amway Italy organized the donation of 3,500 jars of Amway pasta sauce to Opera S. Francesco, a national government organization that delivers meals to the those in desperate need.

Fifty children from low-income families had their wish come true when they were given the presents they wished for by Amway staff and Business Owners in Germany. Working through the Multi-Generation House and the Food Bank in Puchheim, children were asked to write down their wishes which were placed on Christmas trees in the Amway head office and experience center, so Amway Business Owners and staff ABOs could choose and fulfill each wish.

Amway Austria donated 10 Euros to UNICEF for every seat sold at a special Christmas concert performed by talented teenage artists. The special musical, “Last Christmas,” was specially written for them and included rock and punk hits, as well as Christmas classics. The matching donations and an additional raffle raised 5,201 Euros.

Finally, Amway employee Kraig Haybarker made Christmas special as he does every year, by volunteering his time as Santa.

We hope you find special ways to give and receive this Christmas. See you next year!

In Japan, a special dog named Yogi walks the halls of the Shizuoka Children’s Hospital.

This is no ordinary dog. It is a highly trained “Therapy Dog,” part of a special program that aims to speed the recovery of children in hospitals.

Amway Japan was introduced to the Therapy Dog program through the Tyler Foundation, which helps children with childhood cancer. The program has touched the lives of 980 children in Japan since the first Therapy Dog, Bailey, began working with children in 2010.

Yogi was trained in the US with special skills to provide affection and comfort to children in times of pain and stress.

We’ll be following Yogi’s progress, and hope to share stories on the impact he is making on children in Japan.

Thanks to Kafuu Toh for sharing this story.

Some children need a house.

They may have loving parents or caregivers, but they face barriers: poverty … illiteracy … lack of access to credit … unclear laws or pervasive corruption. They often resort to living in unsafe, overcrowded slums. According to UN-Habitat, One out of every three city dwellers – nearly a billion people – lives in a slum and that number is expected to double in the next 25 years. They need a place of their own.

Some children need a home.

They may be orphaned or abused, living in shelters or on the street. According to UNICEF, there are more than 150 million orphans in the world, many of which do not have consistent, caring adults to look after them. They need people to care for them and a place to call their home.

Fortunately, there are great organizations that are working to provide houses and homes for children around the world.

Amway partners with Habitat for Humanity in ten countries across Latin America, including a multi-country partnership to build an entire neighborhood of homes in Guatemala, working with Amway distributors and employees.

Habitat for Humanity works with local governments to establish clear property ownership for underserved families, many who live in poverty and don’t read well enough to fill out an application for a home loan. Through Habitat, volunteers build homes alongside the families that will live there. The new homeowners are trained on maintenance, finances and build equity to ensure they will have a house for their family for the long term.

For children who have no families, or who have to be removed from their families, Amway works with local governments and nonprofit agencies to help. In Japan, Amway helped to establish a Crop Home for abused children. In South Korea, Amway employees and distributors regularly help out at Child Welfare Centers that care for children. In the Amway hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, we provide financial and volunteer support to foster care and adoption agencies that help to provide homes for children.

Amway has also been a longtime supporter of SOS Children’s Villages, which provides a permanent home for orphaned children, which includes a series of homes that make up a village, with each home run by a caring adult. Amway and our employees and distributors have supported and volunteered for SOS Children’s Villages in South Africa, Haiti, South Korea, the United States and China over the years.

A house and a home – many needs, and many ways to help.

Children in Japan who enter state protection following child abuse, or the death or incapacity of parents, traditionally have two paths: they enter a childcare facility or they are placed in a foster home.

Childcare facilities care for 30,000 children, while foster parents can only host about 3,600. Both systems are overwhelmed and it is becoming increasingly difficult to give children recovering from traumatic situations the care they need.

A new partnership model between Amway Japan, Crop Minori and the Japanese government is creating a solution that draws on the strengths and resources of each sector.

At the heart of the partnership is a Family Home for children. Family Homes are run by nonprofit workers and experienced foster parents, providing a home environment for a small number of children with caring adults who establish a stable environment where family-type relationships can flourish.

In 2009, the government created 126 homes across Japan. As part of this new partnership, the new Amway One by One Family Home has been established just outside Tokyo, near the mountains and ocean. The government will sponsor the needs of the children, Crop Minori will help to provide staff and programming and Amway will sponsor the rent of the home and provide volunteers.

Every institution has a role to play in the care of children. This innovative partnership blurs the lines of responsibility among business, nonprofit, government and volunteers, giving everyone a chance to create a bright future for children in need.

Thanks to Hideya Tateno for sharing this story.

After an overwhelming response last year, Amway Japan has re-launched its Orange Ribbon Campaign.

For every orange ribbon assembled and sent to Amway, the company will donate 10 yen for children’s shelters.

Last year, more than 100,000 ribbons arrived in time for the holidays.

Learn more on the Amway Japan One by One website (Japanese).

Some families in Japan recently spent their holiday weekend on the beach, but it wasn’t spent in leisure.

Since 2002, Amway has hosted nearly 150 beach clean-up days with employees and distributors from around Japan. On October 10, volunteers spent the day at Yaizu in the Shizuoka prefecture cleaning up the beach.

Children went on a “treasure hunt,” looking for small pieces of plastic and trash left on the beach. These tiny pieces might look unimportant, but they take many years to break down, contributing to pools of sludge and often causing harm to wildlife in and around the ocean that eat the pieces.

And the little pieces add up. Volunteers collected 34 kilograms (74 pounds) by the end of the day.

What a great impact on our environment … and a wonderful lesson for our children.

See more photos on the Amway Japan Facebook page.

For some, swimming with dolphins is a tourist attraction, but for some students in Japan, it has become an important part of growing up.

Amway suppors a program that brings 40 high school students from a Tokyo foster home to a southern island, a five-hour ship ride away from the mainland. There, the students spend four weeks engaging with the island and their surroundings.

Created for troubled students, this program helps build relationships, self-confidence, trust and independence. Through their time with the dolphins and their experiences on the island, the students are able to build relationships with each other and better understand.

While on the island, the students spend a majority of their time swimming with dolphins, exploring the island, and experiencing the scenery.

For these students, the experience is more than a vacation. It will shape their identity as they return to their schools, their homes, and their futures.

Thanks to Hideya Tateno for sharing this story.