Since its establishment 27 years ago, Procter & Gamble Vietnam has always accompanied the local community in various respects, from education, healthcare and gender equality to talent nurturing and microfinance for poor people.
On July 22, P&G Vietnam handed out the 26th annual event to present scholarships to poor students in Binh Duong Province, meaning the company has for 26 years on end supported education in the southern province during its 27-year presence in the country. Accompanying the community is part of P&G Vietnam’s sustainable development strategy.
Committing to gender equality
Realizing its commitment to boost gender equality, P&G Vietnam has always supported the progress of Vietnamese women.
At P&G, many programs to improve the awareness of gender equality are conducted in March every year with the attendance of influential guests.
P&G Vietnam has accompanied an alliance of trade associations of other countries in Vietnam to hold an event to foster the awareness of diversity, equality and integration, and participated in the Panel Pledge which pledges to increase the visibility and contribution of female leaders in public and professional forums. The firm has also coordinated with the Care International Vietnam to organize seminars on gender equality.
In 2018, P&G Vietnam and the Care International Vietnam jointly kicked off a project called “Reach to Excel” to advance the economic rights of ethnic minority women in the northern provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien and Bac Kan, contributing to developing the economy and gradually removing gender inequality among ethnic minority groups.
Under this joint effort with P&G Vietnam, CARE has set up 260 self-governed financial groups, helping some 5,200 ethnic minority women in the northern upland region access credit, enabling them to be more financially independent.
In the second phase of this endeavor, between December 2020 and December 2021, the partnership set up 287 Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) that provided loans to over 2,400 women, and in the first half of this year, 269 more VSLA were set up, giving loans to some 1,400 more rural women.
Another remarkable program is “Step Up” held by P&G Vietnam’s Ariel brand and the Vietnam Women’s Union to help underprivileged women in rural areas. The program focuses on the education of their children so that these women will be more confident to develop themselves.
Besides women, P&G has acted to support the LGBTQ+ community, the disabled and especially children.
In specifics, the firm launched the “Chilren’s Safe Drinking Water” program in 2016 in association with the Vietnam Red Cross Society with a budget of nearly VND13 billion. The program is aimed at providing clean drinking water by using P&G water purifiers.
Nearly 150,000 households have benefited from the program.
Other social activities
As one of the first U.S. firms to be present in Vietnam after the two countries normalized bilateral relations, P&G has set up two factories in Binh Duong, creating thousands of jobs for locals.
Considering people as the core of the development and success of the company, P&G has attached much importance to the nurture and development of talent, creating favorable conditions for them to improve their knowledge and practice skills. To date, 50 Vietnamese people are working at P&G offices and factories in other countries, such as Thailand, Australia, Singapore and the United States.
Since 2012, P&G Vietnam has cooperated with Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, a nonprofit organization that helps build or improve homes, to construct and repair houses for 60 households and restrooms of primary schools in the Mekong Delta. Nearly 500 employees of the company have directly got involved in the construction process.
Over the past two years when Vietnam faced multiple difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic, P&G and its brands have donated a total of VND16 billion both in cash and in kind to pandemic-hit localities.
In April this year, P&G Vietnam also donated gifts and nearly VND300 million to some 100 children orphaned by Covid-19 in Binh Duong, helping ease their difficulties to some extent.
Speaking at the scholarship award event in Binh Duong in July, P&G Vietnam reiterated its commitment to support the community as part of its sustainable development strategy.
Speaking at the scholarship awarding event in Binh Duong in July, P&G Vietnam reiterated its commitment to support the community as part of its sustainable development strategy, saying that the scholarship program has been an important community program in the company’s sustainable development goal since its inception.
