Volunteerism is the heart of our commitment to the communities in which we do business. Diversey employees give of themselves to enrich the lives of children who live in poverty through our Global Children’s Initiative, share their expertise and leadership to strengthen communities, and give their time and talents to dozens of programs that help build a cleaner, healthier future in every part of the world where we do business.

The centerpiece of our community involvement is the Global Children’s Initiative we founded six years ago. It teams the passion and creativity of our employees worldwide with the needs of the world’s children. We adopt schools in impoverished areas near each of our business operations, and contribute time, supplies and expertise in ways tailored to the needs of the community.

Around the globe, we have sponsored annual Clean Hands Days in our adopted schools to teach good handwashing, which the World Health Organization has called the single most effective means of combating the spread of germs.

In many areas, our Clean Hands programs have started at the most basic level: providing clean water and sanitary restroom facilities to the schools. 

•  In Malaysia, children in our adopted school used a bucket in the back of the classroom to attend to emergency needs because the nearest restroom facility required a long walk with a teacher to accompany the students. We installed a restroom at the school as well as sinks in each classroom equipped with soap dispensers. In Kenya, we built restroom facilities with labor, materials and funds we donated and installed a generator to ensure a steady supply of clean water for handwashing.

• A marketing team in the U.K. developed the Bug Blasters program, centered on cartoon characters that help kids learn good handwashing. With a Web site for children, parents and teachers, as well as coloring books, posters and online games, the program is a comprehensive, child-friendly approach to developing good lifelong hand hygiene practices. As the program has spread throughout our Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, we’ve donated dozens of brightly colored Bug Blasters soap dispensers to schools in need. At our adopted school in Turkey, we’ve twice presented a professionally directed stage play featuring Diversey employees dressed as the Bug Blasters characters engaging youngsters in learning about handwashing. At an orphanage in Russia, toddlers were eager to help our technicians install Bug Blasters dispensers above the sinks.

• In the Philippines, Diversey employees staged a puppet show for the children and near our São Paulo, Brazil, offices, Diversey employees dressed as clowns to engage the children’s attention — an approach that won praise from the school’s curriculum coordinator.

• Ultraviolet lights used in conjunction with special hand cream that makes germs “glow” in the light have fascinated — and helped instruct — children at locales around the globe.

In Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia we’ve partnered with the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation to support Helmets for Kids, a program to protect children whose primary means of transportation is usually on the back of a parent’s motorbike, often through treacherous intersections in busy cities. We’ve furnished nearly 900 helmets to school age children — and at least four children have been in accidents in which the Diversey helmet they were wearing was directly credited with saving them from brain injury or death.

Other Global Children’s Initiative activities have included arranging for dental care for children, helping youngsters plant gardens at schools and learn about the environment, staging a community festival to raise funds for a new classroom, and taking children on nature walks and other outings.

Around the world, we are living out our commitment to a cleaner, healthier future by directly aiding the children who will inherit that future.

Diversey employees also have engaged in other activities to meet regional and local needs.

In seven years, employees near our global headquarters have built 13 houses through the Habitat for Humanity program. In the first year of our participation in the effort, we built one house. Every year since then, we have built two houses per year. We raised more than $500,000 to support the construction and our employees donate about 200 hours of labor on site each year — as well as their year-long efforts to coordinate the program.

When natural disaster strikes, Diversey has responded — after typhoons, hurricanes or tsunamis have caused wide-scale destruction, our employees have rallied with donations of money, time, clothing and food to support relief efforts.

And perhaps the most telling evidence that community involvement is at the heart of our commitment to a cleaner, healthier future: meetings of regional and global leadership typically involve at least a half-day of service at an organization that can benefit from our time and concern.