Worldwide annual walk for children supports daycare centers

FOR 11 YEARS, Roche employees around the world have been showing solidarity with children in need by supporting daycare centers in Malawi, Africa and children’s charities in their own countries.

This year, the event took place on June 16 and united almost 20,000 employees at 109 sites behind one good cause.

“The International Day of the African Child is not just a chance to celebrate children,” says Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche. “It is also an opportunity to raise public awareness of children’s needs. Because we know that their efforts deliver tangible aid, Roche doubles the amount of money they raise.”

Around 70,000 Roche walkers from more than 100 sites worldwide have taken part in the sponsored walk since its inception in 2003, and it has long been a permanent fixture in their diaries. Furthermore, after every year’s walk, employees who have led the fundraising results at their site are given the opportunity to travel to Malawi to see firsthand how the daycare centers Roche supports are helping children. Roche organizes the Children’s Walk and bears all the costs associated with it.

Roche works with the European Coalition of Positive People to support daycare centers in Malawi that look after more than 3,000 children who have been orphaned by AIDS.

Part of the money raised also continues to support schools and education in Malawi through a collaboration with Unicef. After constructing classrooms plus related hygiene facilities and teachers’ rooms at local schools as the first phase, the focus is now shifting to the lack of trained teachers for schools throughout the country.

In the Philippines, Roche partners with the San Lazaro Hospital HIV/AIDS Center. The hospital’s H4 BL Pavilion is the country’s premier institution on HIV/AIDS under the Department of Health, particularly serving indigent Filipino patients. The San Lazaro Hospital has been the local beneficiary of the Roche Children’s Walk since 2006. Roche’s support has funded the purchase of pediatric beds, diagnostic procedures, improvement of the children’s facilities, and activities of Filipino children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

For more information, visit www.roche.com.