CSR briefs

Thailand has lost more than half of its mangrove forests since 1960 due to agricultural expansion especially shrimp farming, urbanisation, roadways, marinas and other intrusive developments. Fortunately, efforts to save mangroves are becoming more popular as their benefits, such as protecting coastal areas from erosion, storm surge and tsunamis become more widely known. Community management has also been effective in mangroves reforestation.

The Royal Thai Navy’s 2,000 mangrove tree-planting efforts at Ban Lam Sing in the vicinity of Bangkok Naval Base has thus attracted cooperation from outsiders. One is Total Access Communication (Dtac), a management team from which was recently there led by Jon Eddy Abdullah, chief executive officer.

“The activity is part of our strong commitment of benevolent intent under ‘do good deeds every day’, to give back to the society and local communities and to help make Thailand a better place for everyone. Part of that is to preserve the environment for succeeding generations,” he said.

This activity is also part of the commitment by all 5,000 employees to contribute to local communities in various areas; for example, teaching to blind children, pushing wheelchairs for the sick and the elderly at hospitals, cleaning beaches and inner city waterways. Dtac hopes to achieve its 100,000 hours target by the end of this year.

 

Dow Thailand helps out in Rayong

In another development, Dow Thailand staff and volunteers from Udom Wittaya School, Kiripaowanaram School, communities and Ban Chang officials also helped plant 1,000 mangrove trees around Pra Sae estuary in Rayong. It is part of Dow’s annual environment activity, hosted for the fifth year in a row. The Pra Sae estuary is  a key waterway in Rayong, with plenty of natural resources, especially mangroves and aquaculture. These resources have helped people living in the area become more self sufficient. 

Over the past four years, Dow Thailand and forest communities have worked to rehabilitate forests and the environment. This year the planting of 1,000 trees has brought the team closer to achieving its target of 7,500 plantings in five years. In addition, helping fixing the damaged wooden bridges in the Thung Prong Thong area helped in the study of natural sources and mangrove eco-tourism.

 

IKEA to play Santa to 1.2 million poor children 

In an innovative collaboration, the IKEA Foundation is donating a range of IKEA toys to UNICEF’s early childhood development (ECD) kits to help meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable children in the world. 

Over the next two years, the kits will be distributed to an estimated 1.2 million children living in emergency or post-conflict settings. 

UNICEF’s ECD kit was designed for children under the age of six living in these difficult circumstances. It aims to focus attention on the needs of children and to support the development of play and learning under extreme conditions. 

The IKEA Foundation has committed to provide eight toys from its current children’s range sold in IKEA stores worldwide for each kit. The toys, with an estimated value of US$2 million, are a donation to UNICEF and will be used in 24,000 ECD kits that will be distributed around the world over the next two years. The kits will help to ensure that some 1.2 million children will have more opportunities for a better start in life. 

When young children are caught up in conflicts or emergencies, the opportunity to experience childhood can be lost. A staggering two thirds of the world’s child population, 1.5 billion children, live in countries affected by crises. With the ECD kits, caregivers can use materials that help to create a reassuring and safe learning environment for children living in such situations. 

Each of the IKEA products was chosen by UNICEF’s educational specialists. The items include a shape sorter, a sort and stack set, finger puppets, hand puppets, school scissors, coloured building blocks, a paper pad and paper roll. It is estimated that 12,000 kits will be required annually by the UNICEF offices that implement programmes for children in conflict situations and emergencies. 

"Research shows that early childhood is the most critical time for brain development. With the additional help of toys such as those donated by the IKEA Foundation, children can develop their cognitive, verbal, visual, auditory and social skills”, said Leila Pakkala, UNICEF director of private fundraising and partnerships. 

“Each of the IKEA toys was chosen to stimulate and engage the minds of young children. The toys are part of a treasure box that makes up the ECD kits, and help restore a sense of hope and normalcy to children living in extremely difficult environments." 

“Providing these IKEA children’s products is another way for the IKEA Foundation to support UNICEF in their special efforts to reach out to vulnerable children who have been caught up in disasters or emergencies”, said Per Heggenes, IKEA Foundation CEO. “We believe that the selected IKEA products can help where the need is the greatest and hopefully bring some smiles back to these children’s faces.” 

The kit packed with the IKEA products is showcased in the 2014 IKEA catalogue. 

For more than 10 years, the IKEA Foundation has been a key partner and supporter of UNICEF’s work, based on a shared commitment to realize the rights of all children. Since 2001, the IKEA Foundation has donated and pledged more than US$200 million to UNICEF in cash and in kind, and today the IKEA Foundation is UNICEF’s largest corporate donor.