Deutsche Post World Net and UNICEF have drawn a positive assessment of their one-year-old strategicpartnership to help in the battle against childhood mortality. The cooperation will be extended to
more areas of the world during 2008.During the first year of the partnership, the cooperation focused on improving health carefor children in Kenya, DPWN said. DHL helped UNICEF distribute around 3.5 million mosquito nets aspart of one of the largest health campaigns in East Africa. Measures to improve long-term healthprecautions such as optimizing equipment and the stocking and cataloging of drugs and vaccines inlocal health centres were also supported.
Walter Scheurle, DPWN board member in charge of human resources, highlighted the commitmentof the corporation’s more than 500,000 employees over the last 12 months. “Colleagues from allbusiness divisions and regions have donated and collected a total of more than EUR 200,000,” hestated. “In addition, last year, ten volunteers supported the work of UNICEF on location in Kenya.In the next few weeks, employees of our corporation will again assist the UNICEF experts in Kenya.I am proud about the exceptional engagement of our employees.”
In some regions of Kenya, 15% of the children die before reaching the age of five, withmalaria as a frequent cause of death. Nevertheless, according to the World Health Organization(WHO), the number of deaths caused by malaria has already been reduced from 34,000 in 2005 to16,000 in 2006 in this area.
“Thanks to the commitment of Deutsche Post World Net and the logistical expertise of itsstaff, UNICEF was able to help many children in Kenya”, said Dieter Garlichs, the ExecutiveDirector of UNICEF Germany. The pilot project in the Kwale region has improved the livingconditions for many families.”
DPWN said it would continue its support in Kenya, for example by building a logistics centrefor medical purposes in the Kwale region.
During 2008, the cooperation between Deutsche Post World Net and UNICEF will be expanded on aglobal scale. Beyond Africa, the corporation henceforth also wants to support joint projects thatare part of the UNICEF topic “Young Child Survival and Development” in South America and Asia. Thistopic is part of UNICEF’s five worldwide strategic areas of focus.
The cooperation with UNICEF is part of a long-term partnership between Deutsche Post WorldNet and the United Nations. Deutsche Post World Net has been supporting the United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) as well as the United Nations Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the area of disaster management since December 2005.
