Vietnam: Improving the quality of life in Chau Dro

The village of Chau Dro takes three hours to reach by car from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Despite all their hard work, most of the inhabitants in the area are extremely poor. Allan Yong, General Manager of Henkel Vietnam, HR employee Truc-Phuong Tran and Stefan Zimmermann, General Manager Cosmetics/Toiletries at Henkel in Vietnam, are regular visitors to the village, helping its people by engaging in various volunteering activities. With their MIT project, they have helped improve not only the health of the village children but also the living standard of five needy families there. Thanks to this engagement and the funds provided by Henkel, five new houses have been built for the families. “We still cannot believe that we now have a real house. Without the donation from Henkel, this would not have been possible,” explains a thankful family member.

In November 2010, Tran and Zimmerman also organized a program entitled “How do I clean my teeth properly.” Supported by a further 50 Henkel employees, they practiced cleaning teeth with around 300 children from the village, showing them the right way to go about their oral care. Henkel donated over 3,000 tubes of toothpaste for distribution among the children. “The tears of joy of the families and the hopeful smiles of the children make it all worthwhile. We want to go on developing this MIT project in order to further improve the standard of living of the village inhabitants,” explains Zimmermann.