Unilever has sent more than 1,000 items New Year gifts including furry toys, photo frames, and hand-made bears to children at 11 Project Hope schools.
The company purchased the gifts and delivered them together with the donations it collected from a family day held on behalf the 11 Unilever Project Hope Schools.
It is reported that the parents of most of the children at Unilever's Project Hope Schools are migrant workers. In April, Unilever donated CNY250,000 to Sichuan Xinmiao Project Hope School — where over half of the students are children of migrant workers — to help the school build a dormitory, rebuild its canteen and playground, and upgrade its children's activity center. In addition the company provided the school with 26 computers to help the children stay in touch with their parents.
Zeng Xiwen, vice president of Unilever Greater China, said that the company had learnd that quite a lot of the children at the Project Hope Schools do not live with their parents, so they hope to get the gifts to them before the New Year.
By the end of 2008, Unilever had made donations for the construction of 18 Project Hope schools in China in addition providing basic study facilities for poor children.