Students soaking up Siemens' charity

Pupils in Sichuan's Guixi Junior Middle School had never seen a washing machine before, so they were stunned to see 10 of them lined up, a gift from Siemens Home Appliances.

But the cheerful teenagers soon learned how to handle the machines and said goodbye to hard times of washing clothes by hand.

"We finally have the laundry to do washing," said Mu Qunli, a first-grade student in the school.

To show their appreciation to Siemens, the students presented Roland Gerke, president and CEO of Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate GmbH (BSH) Home Appliances (China) Co, their own artwork called Tong Zhou Gong Ji - Chinese for "we are all in the same boat" - showing they are all together in good times and bad.

"I am deeply touched, for the gift itself represents great support and encouragement to us. Children are our hope and our future. We will have this (laundry) program for the long term," said Gerke.

Guixi schoolmaster Wu Tianchun said "Siemens Home Appliances was very considerate in that all the supplies were useful, and have helped us solve lots of practical problems in the school".

The "Laundry Aid" program by Siemens, with the slogan "Holding Hands, Caring Every Day", is designed to help students with their lives in the aftermath of the May 12 earthquake that devastated Sichuan.

The Siemens program began after the company learned many students were still living in temporary shelters and washing clothes by hand in dirty water.

Their garments and bedding hung out to dry in temporary rooms could cause health concerns, especially in the hot summer. So the Fortune 500 company began the philanthropic program offering hi-tech laundry rooms to a series of schools in the region, and included donations of stationery, basketballs, skipping ropes, washing powder and liquid soap.

"We want to see them wearing tidy clothes, using clean pillows and sheets, studying and growing up with smiles every day," Gerke said.

Gerke told China Business Weekly that the "Laundry Aid" program was just one of the company initiatives to support rebuilding in quake-hit areas of Sichuan. "Training sponsored by Siemens Home Appliances will also be offered to local teachers," he said.

As one of the most successful home appliance companies in China, Siemens sells its machines to consumers, but also takes part in charity and social welfare.

Its aid to the damaged area of Sichuan started the second day after the earthquake, when Siemens announced a 2-million-yuan donation for immediate rescue and relief. At the end of 2008, it put in another 300,000 yuan to send 100 teachers from Sichuan to Beijing to receive education and psychological training.

According to Gerke, since Siemens Home Appliances entered China in 1994, it has helped in a string of social causes that benefited local communities to help create a sound environment for its business operations in China.

Helping the natural environment has been important to the German company, which donated 50,000 yuan to plant trees in Jiangsu province in March 2005 and three years later provided 5,000 saplings to historic Chuzhou city in Anhui province.

In April of 2008, Siemens Home Appliances, which also specializes in medical equipment, donated products worth 200,000 yuan to a maternal and childcare service center in impoverished Yulong county of Yunnan province. It also pledged 200,000 yuan every year to 2012 to help build similar centers in other poor regions of the province.

In 2005, Siemens Home Appliances donated 2.25 million yuan toward the establishment of the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall and John Rabe International Research and Exchange Center for Peace and Reconciliation.

Other contributors included Siemens Ltd China, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai and Nanjing University.

The hall commemorates John Rabe, a Siemens representative in China in the 1930s famous for his help during the Nanjing massacre, while the center advocates world peace and humanitarianism. Both further Sino-German friendship, the company said.

Siemens Home Appliances' efforts in social causes have helped burnish its social corporate citizen image in China. By the end of 2008, Siemens had 14.8 percent of the refrigerator market in China, ranking No 1 among all the global brands, but is even stronger in the washing machine sector, with the biggest market share of any, some 30.2 percent, Gerke said.

"Siemens will continue to fulfill its social responsibilities in a down-to-earth tradition. We stick to our principles and that will not change even at a time of economic downturn," he told China Business Weekly.

(China Daily 06/29/2009 page10)