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:

The last couple of blog posts tell of our visit to a remote village in China, learning about the challenges of children whose parents have moved to the cities looking for better work.

Today, we spent time with children who moved with their parents to the cities as their parents seek jobs and economic opportunity.

These “migrant children” have significant needs related to education. Children of migrant families don’t have access to the same government-funded schooling as their urban peers, and need assistance from others to bridge the gap.

Amway is helping by building libraries and supporting other programs for children. We visited the Beijing Hongshan School, one of the recipients of this support.

Victoria Han and Amy Wu joined us. Both are Founders Council level Amway distributors, and big supporters of the Amway urban education program called Project Sunshine. They spent time with students in the new school library, and shared their stories with us.

We have much to consider and much more to share as we wrap up our trip to China. Look for more posts in the weeks to come, as well as a video that will tell the full story of the need of migrant children in China, and what Amway is doing to mobilize others to help.

Big thanks to our hosts Paula Peng, Rowley Luo, and the entire team at Amway China and the Amway Charity Foundation.

We returned to the Long Ma Primary School, another three-hour drive out of the city, across the great fields of sugarcane, and through winding mountain passes.

We stopped along the way for a birds-eye view of the villages, and watched the many people going back and forth with their harvests and produce, each working hard to secure a better life.

Two married couples visited the village today and volunteered – Jack Zheng & Lucy Zhou, as well as Wang Cheng An & Yin Jianping. Both are Founders Council level Amway distributors and significant supporters of the Spring Sprout program. They toured classrooms, served meals, played games and distributed toys.

We had a chance conduct interviews of those in charge of the school, including the county mayor, as well as the Amway leaders. We even talked to some students who were “left behind” by parents that sought work in the cities.

There are some amazing partnerships happening in China through the leadership of Amway in the rural areas. This is only a glimpse, which we will expand into the full story in the weeks to come.

Tomorrow, we visit the city and learn what is being done to help children who join their parents in leaving remote village.

After hours of planes, shuttles and busses, we arrived in Nanning, China, then traveled further on to the Long Ma Village, through winding, bumpy roads surrounded by tropical hills.

Sugar cane takes up nearly every acre of arable land in this lush, green area of southern China. The fields are mostly maintained by older people and the few working adults have not moved to the big cities to find work.

For those who do follow China’s economic boom in urban areas to improve their opportunities, they have to decide whether to take their children with them. Many are left behind with grandparents and relatives in quiet towns and villages, where parents send their earnings.

This is the focus of our first visit, and after winding, bumpy roads through beautiful green hills, we arrive at the Long Ma Primary School, where at least 50% of the 361 children have parents away in the cities.

There, we met Jefferson Ren and Miao Dongmei, two Amway Founders Council-level distributors who have been big supporters of the Spring Sprout program, which aims to ensure that children left behind in rural areas have adequate nutrition and are well cared for.

A partnership between Amway, local schools and local and central governments, is outfitting school kitchens and enhancing them with staff and nutritious food.

We spent some time with the students, staff and Amway volunteers, learning more of the story.

Stay tuned for more!

We are out traveling again!

We have heard a lot about the generosity of two of our top Amway distributor leaders from South Korea: Leonard and Esther Kim, members of the Amway Founders Council.

This week, we will visit Amway One by One programs in Korea and learn more about the work they are doing for children.

Similar to our visits to programs in Guatemala, Taiwan and the United States, this program is part of a larger partnership with our distributor leaders to help children in many different ways, according to the local needs and the passions of Amway distributors in their local communities.

We will share more in the upcoming weeks.

We’re out of the office today!

Jim and Nancy Dornan are some of our top Amway distributors, reaching the Founders Crown Ambassador level, and serving as part of the Amway Founders Council.

This week, we will visit one of the projects the Dornans and other distributors in the US are supporting called Power Soccer. It provides opportunities for those who are in power wheelchairs to participate in organized sports competition. We will do interviews and take photos, and create a video to tell the story.

This is part of a broader initiative to partner with Amway distributor leaders through the Amway One by One campaign. We’ve already visited programs in Taiwan and Guatemala, and look forward to seeing this program in the US.

Stay tuned for more.