For a third year in a row, the Iberchem Guangzhou team joined forces with the CAFFCI (China Association of Fragrance, Flavour and Cosmetic Industries) to distribute school supplies to underprivileged children. This year, we visited a school in the city of Libo, in Guizhou province. Our team handed out over 400 uniforms to the students.

“Everyone at the office looks forward to this time of year,” says Tony Xu, Deputy Manager at Iberchem Guangzhou. “It has become a tradition for us. Not only do we distribute school supplies, but we also spend the whole day with the children. This year the school organized a friendly football match.”

“Contributing to give access to quality education and to eradicate poverty are top priorities of our sustainability programme,” says Guillaume Audy, Director of Sustainability at the Iberchem Group. “It is important to think of sustainability in the long term. If we want to be able to achieve the other sustainable development goals (SDGs) and make sure that our future generations will maintain the efforts we are making today, we must provide them with the necessary resources to overcome these two particular challenges.”

Great progress has been made in recent decades to eradicate poverty.  According to the UN, since 2000, global poverty rates have been cut by more than half. Nevertheless, 10% of the world’s population still live in extreme poverty and struggle to meet basic needs such as health, access to water, education, and sanitation.

As for education, it represents a key solution to escaping poverty. In recent years, major progress has been made towards increasing access to education and school enrolment rates. Despite this, education is far from universally accessible. The Iberchem Group is committed to helping ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education and to promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Facts:

In 2015, more than 736 million people lived below the international poverty line of EUR 1.57 a day. (Source:UN)

In 2018, nearly 8% of the world’s workers and their families lived on less than EUR 1.57 per person per day. (Source:UN)

In 2030, over 200 million children will still be out of school and only 60% will complete an upper secondary education. (Source: UN)