One by One

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!

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.

The first Amway Youth Career Summit brought 110 aspiring high school freshmen to our World Headquarters for a day of experiential learning.

Hailing from three West Michigan high schools – Cedar Springs Tech 21 Academy, Grand Rapids University Prep Academy, Ottawa Hills School of Business Leadership and Entrepreneurship – these academics got a crash course in topics ranging from professional etiquette to sustainable business practices.

Students were randomly placed into 14 groups and embarked on a journey through our Ada, Michigan campus. They took DISC personality assessments, participated in a scavenger hunt at the Amway Welcome Center, toured our manufacturing plants and witnessed R&D demonstrations.

During lunch hosted by Amway employees, students took in a dynamic presentation from entrepreneur and Amway founding family member Rick DeVos, who spoke about his work and life experiences as creator of the wildly successful Art Prize and 5×5 community events.

The students finally departed, a little exhausted, but full of new ideas and dreams of their futures.

Thanks to Angela Nelson for sharing this story.

Holly Chen and Barry Chi have achieved the highest levels of success with Amway, and along the way they have helped many children in difficult situations acheive success in their own lives.

We visted Holly and Barry in December. This video tells their story.

In Thailand, the image of a bird released from a cage and flying away is considered a symbol of “merit making,” or granting freedom.

This image was the inspiration for a new program that supports childhood literacy.

Amway Thailand has been a longtime supporter of programs increase reading in children, from providing scholarships, to creating books for the visually impaired, to building school libraries in remote areas of the country where literacy levels are lowest.

In fact, the Amway for Thai Society Foundation learned that, on average, Thai children only read two books per year. The cause stems from a lack of available books.

A new initiative called The Flying Book hopes to elevate the issue, and get people involved in selecting the best books and “flying” them to children.

Through an iPhone application, website and Facebook page, anyone can vote on their favorite books.

Then, using the world’s first augmented reality and location-based book donation platform, they can follow their book in real time as it travels to the remote areas of Thailand.

Visit http://www.flyingbook.org/ or visit the Facebook page or download the app to take part in the journey.

Thanks to Laksana Jenananporn for sharing this story.

Here are a few numbers to tell this story:

20

That’s the number of years Amway has been operating in Hungary, and the reason for celebrating an anniversary last year.

250

That’s the number of Amway Business Owners and employees who designed an anniversary project to teach children about the environment, while beautifying their country.

1991

That’s the year Amway started in Hungary. It’s also the number of trees planted across the country in a single year, all donated by Amway Business Owners.

7000

That’s the number of children that participated in the tree planting program, and learned something new about how to take care of their planet.

During our visit to Taiwan last month, we made an unscheduled stop.

The focus of our trip was the afterschool program supported by Holly Chen and Barry Chi, and many other Amway distributors in their network.

However, the president of National Taitung University couldn’t pass up the chance to catch one of his star students, in town for the day.

When she was only 15 years old, Holly Chen had left her small island town to travel to Taitung for college. This led to her first career as a teacher and her second–and last–career at Amway.

So when Holly was recently asked to help the University with transporting students between two campuses, she jumped at the opportunity.

The “Amway Plum Blossom” was donated in memory of Holly’s mother. The bus will continue the legacy of students improving their lives through education.

Our team had a unique opportunity to visit two of our top Amway distributors in Taiwan who are doing some amazing work for underprivileged children in partnership with Amway Taiwan.

Holly Chen and Barry Chi have achieved the highest recognition possible within Amway and manage their business across 20 countries. Yet they took the time to travel to the southern edges of Taiwan to introduce us to programs that are having a significant impact on children in need.

The Hope School project, led by theologian and child education expert Dr. Huang, provides afterschool and summer programs to children who may not otherwise have access to enrichment classes like sports, language, music and field trips. Many of the children’s parents have moved away to larger cities to find work, and some are orphaned or abandoned. The Hope Schools we visited in Tainan and Taitung provide critical support for these children.

The places we visited were bustling, energetic and full of Amway distributor volunteers in red shirts. The caring reached out to the surrounding communities, where families, churches and schools became a part of nurturing and encouraging the next generation of Taiwanese leaders … one by one.

Below are a few photos from the visit. More of the story, including a video, will be coming soon.

Holly Chen using her past experience as a teacher to help students with their homework

One of many Amway distributors spending time with at-risk children in Tainan

Barry Chi working with a student, with Dr. Huang observing their progress

Baskeball and badmitton recreational time with Amway volunteers

Students in Tainan who attend afterschool programs

Students in Taitung taking part in a special education program for aboriginal children

Amway distributors, Hope School staff and children celebrate their time together

Thanks to Nadia Ding and Julie Wu for their contributions to this story, and to the program.