May 13 this year saw a meeting of numerous Henkel employees and retirees at this year’s “MIT Round Table”. As part of its worldwide employee volunteering program (MIT), Henkel has, since 1998, been supporting the projects of its current and former employees around the world. An annual Round Table event is held to enable these volunteers to exchange their views and experience. One special highlight this year: an international team of employees is to empower 120 families in Guatemala to improve their lives both now and into the future. This MIT Anniversary Project has been granted a special sponsorship donation of 100,000 euros.
One day each year, Henkel’s corporate HQ experiences a special kind of personal interchange, characterized by socially engaged people listening attentively, joining in lively discussions and speaking of their moving experiences. Sixty employees and retirees are invited to report on their volunteering activities under the auspices of MIT. All these people have one thing in common: the dedication that they show to their causes in their free time has been adjudged by Henkel to be worthy of particular support.
“Although the global challenges are great indeed, the Round Table is a constant reminder that we are all part of the ‘Henkel family’,” reports Christa Büchler, Head of Corporate Donations. “I hope that, with international team projects, this feeling of togetherness will be transferred to many more undertakings and regions.” The first step in this direction has already been taken in the form of the “HELPS Changing Lives” project, which was selected last year from 86 submissions as the undertaking to mark the tenth anniversary of the MIT initiative. In 2009, it will receive a special grant of 100,000 euros.

Helping families in Guatemala

Around the world, families and children in particular are profiting from the volunteering activities of Henkel’s employees and retirees. And that is also so in the case of the anniversary project put in place to provide aid to 120 families in a rural region. Great poverty, the inherent dangers of open fireplaces, a lack of clean water, minimal or no education at all, and inadequate agricultural productivity are the problems that blight everyday life in many rural regions of Guatemala. Summer 2009 will see the start of an international team project aligned to help the local people to help themselves. The sponsorship encompasses, among other things, a school education for the local children, access to clean water, the construction of a health center, and measures to improve agricultural productivity.
The special aspect of this undertaking is that Henkel employees from many different countries and continents will be delivering the project in collaboration with the aid organization “HELPS International” and hand-in-hand with the local villagers on the ground. This mode of cooperation will also help to further expand the global network of volunteering Henkel employees and retirees. The international team is being coordinated by a Henkel employee who has been working for the last two years in Guatemala; it was she who proposed the project for the MIT Anniversary Sponsorship.

Make and Impact on Tomorrow

Around the world, Henkel employees and retirees undertake volunteering work for a better society. Since 1998, Henkel’s MIT (Make an Impact on Tomorrow) initiative has been supporting this social engagement and its application to local projects. Henkel’s assistance takes the form of cash donations, products and other in-kind donations or allowing the volunteers to take paid leave. Since 1998, 7,181 projects have been sponsored in this way, improving the living conditions of people throughout the world.

Valuable contribution to the global UN development goals

Employee social engagement promoted by the MIT initiative constitutes one of the core elements of Henkel Smile – the name of Henkel’s corporate citizenship program. In addition to the MIT initiative, the Henkel Smile program has two further core elements: the Henkel Friendship Initiative (emergency fund) and the company’s Social Partnerships (corporate and brand engagement).
With the volunteering and charitable projects under the Henkel Smile umbrella, Henkel and its employees and retirees contribute to improving the quality of life of many people by reducing need or simply bringing joy. Moreover, the program also contributes to overcoming identified global social challenges. In the year 2000, the United Nations formulated its “Millennium Development Goals” – urgent, social and political issues affecting our present and our future condensed into eight objectives that are to be achieved by the year 2015. With Henkel Smile, Henkel makes many small contributions to the achievement of these goals – in particular in the developing world and emerging nations. The company supports activities in the areas of social need, education and science, fitness and health, arts and culture, and the environment.

Further information:

www.henkel.com/smile
For more than 130 years, Henkel has been a leader with brands and technologies that make people's lives easier, better and more beautiful. Henkel operates in three business areas – Home Care, Personal Care, and Adhesive Technologies – and is ranked among the Fortune Global 500 companies. More than 60 percent of Henkel’s sales are in consumer goods, while the industrial business accounts for almost 40 percent of the company’s total sales. In fiscal 2008, Henkel generated sales of 14,131 million euros and an adjusted operating profit of 1,460 million euros. Our more than 55,000 employees worldwide are dedicated to fulfilling our corporate claim, "A Brand like a Friend," and ensuring that people in more than 125 countries can trust in brands and technologies from Henkel.