Since 2001, a team of physicians and assistants travels to Nepal once a year, supported by MIT, to give children medical treatment. They have a little hospital with them, stethoscopes, medication, sensors, syringes, scales and first aid kits. Children are getting treated at schools, asylums or at the “Children Rescue Center” orphans’ hospital.

“Fundamind” is an institution that attends to about 100 children and their families, coming from the slums and impoverished neighbourhoods. The focus is on education of values and prevention of HIV/AIDA, Malaria, and other diseases. They also care for children with serious problems of under-nourishment, negligence, mistreatment and abuse.

This project is aimed at teaching children how to preserve wildlife and more specifically birds: Why, how and where? Experts demonstrate what everyone can do to protect the environment and with that to preserve a birds’ way of life. The aim is to make the children feel more responsible and respectful for nature and the environment. The project is open to all students from the village between the ages of 3 to 12 years.

After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Henkel established a school for more than 90 boys and girls in Ranganathapuram, India. The boys are trained as carpenters, electricians, and other trades, and the girls are taught dressmaking and embroidery, but also how to use computers. All of the young people are also given a good general education. In 2008, training in eco-farming was started on the school grounds. Also in 2008, the school received official government approval as a training center.

Via the Henkel Friendship Initiative (HFI e.V.) 20,000 euros have been donated to an aid organization in Germany. The money is designated for the support of the non-profit association "International Search and Rescue - I.S.A.R. Germany" which has already sent specially trained teams to Haiti to provide professional help. In addition Henkel will provide the Haitian population with personal care and cleaning products to help improve the hygiene situation.

Henkel employees in the Philippines distributed food to the victims of typhoon Ondoy. On September 26, 2009, it swept over the Philippines, leaving a large number of dead in its wake. The Henkel Friendship Initiative provided emergency aid for the company’s employees and victims of the typhoon.

Through the Henkel Friendship Initiative e.V., Henkel has donated a total of 150,000 euros to support victims of the May 2008 earthquake in China. After a first transfer of 50,000 Euros to the local Red Cross, Henkel supported the organization through 50,000 Euros worth of health care products, cleaning agents and building material. The third portion was given within the following two months to support sustainable projects to rebuild the village of Sichuan. The immediate help as well as the reconstruction aid was provided in close cooperation with the Red Cross and Henkel companies located in China (MIT projects).

Schoolchildren at the St. Paul school in Dhupguri, India, celebrate the opening of a new building for an additional 400 children. This was made possible by the brand engagement of our leading laundry detergent brand, Dixan, in Italy. A total of 1,000 children will now be able to attend the school. The donation from Dixan also finances the daily school meals. The aim of the Dixan for the School initiative, which was launched in 1999, is to promote the creativity of schoolchildren in Italy while also drawing attention to the problems of poorer children in developing countries.

To celebrate its centennial in 2007, Persil launched an initiative aimed at promoting educational, cultural and leisure activities for children and teenagers. Due to the great response “Project Futurino” has also been continued in the following years. In the anniversary year, mainly projects with focus on facilities for outdoor activities for children as well as musical, cultural, literary, and scientific projects were fostered with a total sum of one million Euros. The initiative was continued in 2008 as well as 2009 with a contribution of 500,000 euros. This time the promotion was concentrated on projects “enabling children to develop an awareness for nature, experience that feeling of fascination and understand, through play, why it is important to protect the environment,” explains Thomas Toennesmann, Head of Marketing Laundry & Home Care.

Henkel supports leukaemia patients by organizing blood typing drives. So it was about more than just fair play when the two local ice hockey teams DEG METRO STARS of Düsseldorf, sponsored by Henkel, and the ‘Cologne Sharks’ met in the ISS Dome in Düsseldorf. In collaboration with the ‘DKMS’ (German Bone Marrow Donor Database), Henkel and the DEG METRO STARS together instituted a campaign on behalf of patients suffering from leukaemia. About 250 of the 13,500 fans participated, allowing a small blood sample to be taken from them by Henkel medical staff before the match. Through collecting donations and organization on the actual date, also trainees and volunteers of the MIT initiative helped to make the event happen. Henkel and the DEG METRO STARS each financed half of the costs involved in the blood typing campaign. The collection proceeds totaled 16,500 euros. Even after the match, the activity was continued when Alexander Sulzer, one of the players, and fifty Henkel employees spontaneously decided to also have themselves registered as potential stem cell donors.

In Austria, blind and heavily sight impaired children reliant on special therapies receive expert help. For over 20 years now, the CONTRAST association at the Wiener Blindeninstitut (Vienna Institute for the Blind) has been concentrating much of its effort on early intervention programs for children of up to the age of six. More than 200 children are undergoing therapy in Vienna, Lower Austria and the Northern Burgenland region. Henkel provides financial support for the advanced training of the association’s professional therapy staff. “The support provided by the association receives for our early intervention center is phenomenal and incredibly important for the affected children and their families,” says Günter Thumser, President of Henkel Central Eastern Europe in Vienna.