Supported by the Bayer Cares Foundation:
Bayer Employees Volunteer to Make a Difference and
Promote Societal Innovation
· 3 Winning entries from India
· More than 500 projects in 66 countries supported with more than EUR 1.76 million
Mumbai, December 20, 2016 – For many employees, the mission “Bayer: Science For A Better Life” does not end when they leave to go home. They work as volunteers to improve living conditions near the company’s sites – on every continent around the world. To support them, the Bayer Cares Foundation is providing a total of EUR 264,000 of funding for a further 73 projects implemented in 37 countries.
“It’s fantastic that so many employees are using their professional expertise and experience to volunteer in projects in the neighborhood of our sites,” says Kemal Malik, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG responsible for Innovation and member of the Executive Committee of the Bayer Cares Foundation. “They often make use of the power of innovation to bring about change and overcome the challenges that society is facing.”
The volunteering program focuses on the promotion of health care, nutrition and science education, which also represent Bayer as an innovation leader in life sciences. Since the program was launched in Germany in 2007 and rolled out globally in 2013, 508 employee volunteering projects in 66 different countries have received seed funding from the Bayer Cares Foundation totaling more than EUR 1.76 million.
Bayer employees are implementing new volunteering projects in the communities surrounding the company’s sites in the following countries:
•Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam
•New Zealand
•Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine
•North, Central and South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, United States, Venezuela
•Africa: Ivory Coast, Kenya, South Africa
From India three role models have been selected for the year 2016 for their support and help make a positive change to the society. Rahul Patil an employee from Bayer CropScience Limited, Thane is associated with ‘Shivar Sansad’, an organization in Osmanabad, Maharashtra that conducts personal counseling sessions for farmers and rural youth, who have financial issues and crop losses. Members of the ‘Shivar Sansad’ help farmers to get crop loans and government support to overcome financial instability.
G B Satish Kumar from Bayer BioScience Pvt Ltd., Hyderabad Satish works with ‘Sarvodaya Integrated Rural Development Society’ (SIRDS) in Koppal, Karnataka which runs a low-cost sanitary napkin manufacturing unit in order to enable rural women access to sanitary napkins. Around 70 percent of all reproductive diseases in India are believed to be caused by poor menstrual hygiene. Only 12 percent of India’s 355 million menstruating women use pads. Hence, this project aims to address the issues of creating awareness amongst the rural women/ school girls and promote the use of sanitary napkins. The Project also aims at developing sustainable model for manufacturing low cost sanitary pads locally which can positively generate employment and can benefit the community significantly.
Saikat De from Bayer Seeds Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, is associated with ‘TB Alert India’ a support group from Hyderabad that produces and markets low cost sanitary pads for rural women and adolescent girls. Training and awareness related to women’s health and sexuality is a part of the project. The project is being implemented in Kumarigadda village, Medchal, Hyderabad, India. The project aims to empower women and adolescent girls to overcome barriers to managing their menstrual health by increasing access and affordability and effectiveness of menstrual hygiene products.
Bayer Cares Foundation
As the social welfare foundation of the innovation company Bayer, the Bayer Cares Foundation sees itself in particular as an initiator, promoter and partner for innovation at the interface between industry and the social sector. The sponsorship programs are focused on people – their commitment to public welfare, their wealth of ideas in fulfilling social needs, and those that arise in times of emergency. The foundation’s funding activities are a central element of Bayer’s global social commitment amounting to approximately EUR 50 million annually – with the focus on promoting scientific education and leading-edge research, as well as on providing health care and nutrition and meeting the basic social needs of people who live near the company’s sites.
You can find out more about the Bayer Cares Foundation at:
www.bayer-foundations.com