All over the Henkel world employees and retirees voluntarily work in social projects. Henkel supports their voluntary work and for this reason founded the MIT initiative (Make an Impact on Tomorrow) more than ten years ago. Each year Henkel promotes hundreds of MIT Children’s Projects all over the world with a total amount of one million euros and a maximum of 10.000 euros per project.

Once a year a Henkel-jury decides on which MIT Children’s Projects will be supported. The applications of employees and retirees are discussed extensively, descriptions of several projects are worked through and at last it is decided on the amount of funding. Now, the MIT board met again in Düsseldorf and discussed hundreds of projects.

Henkel has taken immediate actions to provide aid to the victims of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti. Via the Henkel Friendship Initiative (HFI e.V.) 20,000 euros have been donated to an aid organization in Germany.

The money is designated for the support of the non-profit association “International Search and Rescue – I.S.A.R. Germany“ which has already sent specially trained teams to Haiti to provide professional help. 

In addition Henkel will provide the Haitian population with personal care and cleaning products, to help improve the hygiene situation.

To get the year 2010 off to a good start let’s have a look at the exceptional results of all Henkel Smile activities in 2009:

In the past year Henkel supported more than 2,200 charitable projects with a financial input of nearly 7.7 million euros (~11 million dollar).

An incredibly high number of 1,250 MIT-projects were realized worldwide by Henkel employees and retirees. 318 times Henkel granted a paid day off for the purpose of giving employees the possibility to spend time on their projects.

On seven occasions, Henkel provided financial support and in-kind donations in response to natural catastrophes. The company and its brands were also involved in 1,005 projects of their own.

In sum, the social engagement of Henkel, its employees and retirees in 2009 has served to improve the lives of over 500,000 people.

This year more than 280 Henkel employees in Düsseldorf participated in a special charity campaign for deprived children. The so-called “Christmas tree of wishes“ event is part of the MIT-initiative. For this purpose Christmas trees in Düsseldorf were decorated with 287 cards listing children’s biggest wishes for Christmas. Henkel employees had the opportunity to fulfill these wishes, each worth up to 20 Euro. Within only one hour the cards were plucked from the trees. A few days later Henkel employees provided the desired presents, among them dolls, balls, games or scooters and volunteers took the presents to the children.

In Düsseldorf the event took place for the third time and each year more Henkel employees would like to participate. In addition many Henkel sites in Germany have picked up this idea and arranged their own “Christmas tree of wishes” event.

I would like to thank all Henkel employees for their commitment and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Dear Volunteers, Dear Colleagues,

On December 5 the world celebrates the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development. On this occasion we would like to thank you – the Henkel employees who are doing voluntary work in all parts of the world – for your outstanding achievements.

May I express my appreciation to those of you who spend a great deal of your free time supporting the disadvantaged, serving the public good or helping people in need.

The significance of volunteering cannot be valued highly enough.

I am really proud to see the great dedication of all Henkel volunteers in 2009!