Company: The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G)
Country: China
Project Name: Children to Learn, Live & Thrive via P&G
Category: Education
Website:
Objectives:
The project aimed to do the following:
i.bring all children in poverty-stricken areas in China to school
ii.enhance the quality of education by improving the software and hardware conditions, i.e., the children’s physical and spiritual health, sports and music facilities, and teacher trainings
Details of the Project:
In the poverty-stricken parts of China, children were deprived of the chance to receive education. As such, they grew up to be poor peasants and workers like their parents.
The P&G global campaign, namely, "Live, Learn and Thrive™" (LLT) thus focused on improving the lot of these children. In 2008, P&G Hong Kong’s Project Hope Schools set the target of having 200 P&G Hope Schools up by 2010, for 150,000 children.
P&G started supporting Project Hope in China in 1996, in partnership with the state-run NGO, the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF). This key LLT program of P&G was the largest charitable education project in China.
Since then P&G had donated approximately 49 million yuan (USD7 million) for the construction of 180 Hope Schools in 1,000 poor villages in the country for over 100,000 underprivileged children. In addition, P&G was dedicated to improving the quality of education and the physical and spiritual health of the students.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Project Hope in China, P&G developed a strategic three-year initiative focused on enabling sports, music and hygiene education: “Happy Sports Campaign 2008”, “Happy Music Campaign 2009” and “Happy Health Campaign 2010”.
Before launching its athletic initiative, P&G determined that not one Hope School in China had a full set of sports facilities, while 47 percent had no specific sports venue. The company therefore pioneered the “Hope School Happy Sports Campaign”, that led to the installation of 100 sets of standard sports equipment in 100 Hope Schools within a year. A 10-day sports teacher training program was conducted by trainers from the Beijing Normal University's School of Physical Education and Sports Science, and the Beijing Institute of Education. In 2008, some 2 million yuan was donated to underprivileged children with athletic potential.
P&G exclusively sponsored the “Go! 2008 - West China Project Hope Happy Sports Games” organized by CYDF. It attracted 28 teams from 12 provinces and municipalities. It also sponsored the participation of two provincial teams in the Games in Harbin. The Sports Gala successfully encouraged all the students and teachers to embrace the Beijing Olympics.
Aware that music was underdeveloped in China’s impoverished rural areas, P&G kicked off the “Happy Music Campaign” in Mianzhu, a city severely damaged by the 2008 earthquake. Hoping to bring music education to Hope Schools and some non-P&G Hope Schools, P&G installed 120 sets of music facilities at 25,000 yuan each. In November 2009, it organized music teacher trainings in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
From May to December 2009, it initiated a campus music festival to encourage P&G employees, business partners, consumers and music volunteers to visit Hope Schools and bring music and happiness to the children. It also sponsored the Project Hope Music Gala in Chengdu in October 2009.
To maximize the impact of Project Hope’s educational initiatives, P&G leveraged the synergy of resources of internal and external parties. Aside from constructing 50 primary schools with 30 business partners and launching sports and music education campaigns in partnership with CYDF and 33 provincial Youth Development Foundations, it engaged its brands, employees, partners, retailers, suppliers, consumers, NGOs and media to support its programs. In 2008, its in-store shopper marketing event with NBA and CYDF engaged 6 P&G brands, 8 of its largest retailers, and 10 million consumers to raise 400,000 yuan for 20 happy sports yards in Hope Schools. Each year, more than 350 million consumers participated in P&G’s in-store charity campaigns in China.
The biggest challenges of the campaign were to find the right way to identify the real desires of the children and tailor programs, accordingly. To this end, P&G conducted an extensive survey in all P&G Hope Schools.
CYDF has replicated P&G’s sports and music education models in other non-P&G Hope Schools in China.