Roche Products employees donated their time and part of their salaries for children’s initiatives in Malawi on 10 June.
The Roche Children’s Walk is the signature global event of the company. Since 2003, Roche employees have continuously raised money for children in need by joining the annual walk with the purpose of encouraging self-sustainable living through education and health programmes.
Money collected by Roche employees during this global event is matched by Roche and the funds raised are used for children’s initiatives in Malawi, one of the least developed countries in the world.
Roche employees have a long history of supporting education efforts in Malawi. The funds raised have helped over 17 000 pupils who were able to gain secondary education. Roche also supported young adults to learn a trade that allows them to find a job or create their own company. With Roche’s support over 100 students have already graduated. Many more will also gain a tertiary education which is not easily accessible to students who come from an underprivileged background.
Over a period of five years, Roche partnered with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) for the construction of a Teacher’s Training Centre (TTC) in Malawi which has enabled the training of 560 young teachers per year.
“Education coverage is particularly low, due to the high primary school dropout and repetition rates, but also through the dramatic loss of life incurred in the 90s during the HIV/Aids epidemic,” said Roche Products Communications Specialist Lerato Mokgatle. She said that the orphan centres as well as the TTC were handed back to their local communities and are now fully self-sustaining.
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