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In 2009, PepsiCo Foundation provided a three-year, $5 million grant to help promote the survival and well-being of children living in rural India and Bangladesh. These countries alone are home to more than 40 percent of the world's malnourished children. With PepsiCo Foundation's funding, Save the Children can build on its local and international expertise to design and implement community-based programs that improve the health and nutrition of children under age five. These children and their families are among their countries' poorest. Save the Children is working with community health educators to provide families with important messages about health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.
In Bangladesh, Save the Children led a successful pilot study using ready-to-use food that is specially formulated to help treat children's acute malnutrition. Findings showed a community-based approach (nonclinic or hospital setting) carried out by community health workers is an effective method for addressing severe acute malnutrition in children under five years old. The results of this study are influencing policy and practice across the country. Additionally, the organization is introducing market-led, income-generation activities with women, so families can create and sustain improvements to food security and increase their livelihoods. Save the Children is also building the capacity of local communities and other nongovernmental organizations in India and Bangladesh so the benefits delivered can be sustained over the long term.
During the first half of 2010, Save the Children completed operations research on community health volunteer (CHV) capacity to diagnose and treat severe acute malnutrition, and expanded coverage of treatment services to two new subdistricts. Additionally, we strengthened linkages between CHVs and Village Development Committees to ensure maintenance of water sanitation infrastructure.
With funding from PepsiCo Foundation, Save India's Aapno Swasthya Aapne Haath Program (Our Health in Our Hands) has provided significant benefits.
The combined global resources of Save the Children and PepsiCo Foundation are helping to make a profound difference in the lives of 545,000 children under age five, mothers, and pregnant and lactating women in India and Bangladesh. This project is consistent with PepsiCo Foundation's vision of creating a better tomorrow for the global community. It also means both progress for children and women and movement in advancing the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.
Since 1997, PepsiCo's associates have provided funds to Save the Children through associates' matching gift programs. PepsiCo Foundation has also supported Save the Children's emergency response activities in Haiti following the earthquake in January 2010, in West Africa in response to a hunger emergency in 2006, and in Pakistan following a major earthquake in 2005.
PepsiCo Foundation and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world's largest humanitarian agency that fights hunger worldwide, have a strategic partnership aimed at enhancing the ability of WFP to deliver food and relief to the most vulnerable communities around the globe.
PepsiCo Foundation has committed $2.2 million to World Food Program USA, which brings together global logistics experts from PepsiCo to help strengthen WFP's response to growing hunger needs. The needs were brought on by high food prices and the global financial crisis, as well as the imperative to improve the organization's operating efficiency and response time in crisis situations.
Propelled in part by the global food crisis in 2008 and subsequent global economic crisis, there are more than one billion undernourished people in the world today. That means one in nearly six people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. WFP and PepsiCo logistics experts, including PepsiCo retirees who are part of PepsiCo Foundation Service Corps, are sharing best practices, collaboration tools, performance dashboards and training frameworks to improve food delivery. All of the operating efficiencies WFP gains will be reapplied to meet the needs of the disadvantaged communities WFP serves.
We launched a multiyear pilot to innovate strategies and programs to better meet the health and well-being of African American and Hispanic/Latino populations. Since 2007, 29 Ys have been engaged in this critical learning process, resulting in new strategies for serving the health and well-being of African American and Hispanic/Latino individuals, their children and their families.
So far, 29 Ys in 16 states report impacting 40,000 people in 85 communities. And the Ys are enhancing their impact through nearly 260 local collaborations with other community-based organizations.
Data has been collected from more than 350 Health-Smart Behavior participants:
The Foundation is working with Oxford Health Alliance to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive community-based research intervention project to prevent and control obesity and associated chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, and diet- and tobacco-related cancers).
The long-term goal of this first-of-its-kind initiative called Community Interventions for Health (CIH) is to create and implement sustainable interventions to prevent and control leading chronic diseases by addressing the three main risk factors—unhealthy diet, tobacco use and physical inactivity.
Over 30,000 individual surveys have been gathered and baseline data is being analyzed. Two reports have now appeared in peer-reviewed scientific journals. These papers are on the overall CIH methodology and the environmental scan methodology. Since the intervention period began, approximately 2,000 individuals in Mexico City have been reached. Indirectly, over the course of the project, more than 580,000 will be reached. In China, approximately 400,000 individuals have been reached, and in India 14,000 have been reached directly out of the more than 186,000 expected to be reached over the course of the project.
The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) is a national effort designed to help reduce obesity—especially childhood obesity—by 2015. It's a first-of-its kind coalition that brings together more than 150 retailers, food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, sporting goods and insurance companies, trade associations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and professional sports organizations. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation promotes ways to help people achieve a healthy weight through energy balance—calories in and calories out. It focuses on three critical areas—the marketplace, the workplace and schools. Participating companies have committed to making changes in the marketplace by providing healthier product options and reducing total calories introduced into the marketplace; making changes in the workplace by helping employees develop and maintain healthy lifestyles; and supporting schools by sponsoring programs, tools and resources in schools to help children build healthy lifestyles.
Since 2009, PepsiCo Foundation has contributed a total of $2.5 million for the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation's public education campaign, Together Counts and its school programs: Energy Balance 101, Energy Balance 4 Kids, and the Healthy School Partnership.
Water.org is a highly respected, 20-year-old U.S. nonprofit with a mission to provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. The organization fills a key role in addressing the water crisis worldwide. Water.org operates as a matchmaker that connects donor dollars directly to capable community organizations in developing countries that otherwise are unable to source funding on their own and lack the expert implementation, knowledge and technical experience that Water.org brings.
Working together with Water.org, PepsiCo Foundation has committed to accelerating greater access to safe water and sanitation for those currently living without these basic necessities in India. This goal is being met through programs delivered via grants and WaterCredit an innovative initiative that facilitates microcredit loans for water and sanitation.
Core elements of the initiative include delivery of safe water systems, access to improved sanitation, health and hygiene education, establishing a revolving loan fund of more than $1 million for water and sanitation projects, and facilitating the growth of a commercial market for microcredit loans for water and sanitation.
Due to the unique WaterCredit element of this initiative, PepsiCo Foundation anticipates there will be a natural "multiplier effect" that will widen the impact of this commitment to a larger number of beneficiaries throughout the recipient communities. WaterCredit is much needed, given the current water and sanitation situation in India. More than 120 million people lack access to safe water in India, which is more than the population of all but 10 countries worldwide. In addition, 800 million people in India do not have access to a hygienic toilet.
The World Health Organization reports that, in low-income countries, unsafe water and sanitation are associated with three of the 10 leading causes of death. At any given time, patients suffering from a water-related disease occupy half of the world's hospital beds. Current methods of addressing this water and sanitation crisis are not scalable, as they rely on philanthropy alone. The novel WaterCredit approach of blending microfinance with water and sanitation is not only new to the water sector, but also to PepsiCo Foundation's philanthropic portfolio.
The partnership with Water.org will not only provide safe water for people living in India, but will also create a sustainable and scalable model that can be replicated to accelerate access to safe water and sanitation for hundreds of millions of people throughout the developing world.
| Number of people served with household water connections | 156,593 |
| Number of people served with household toilet improvements | 84,561 |
| Leveraged commercial capital to be mobilized for water and sanitation loans | $3.43 million |
| Leveraged community capital for water and sanitation facilities construction | $5.23 million |
| Total number of borrowers obtaining loans through WaterCredit activities | 29,673 |
| Total dollar amount disbursed to borrowers through WaterCredit activities | $3.66 million |
By mid-2011, Water.org had reduced the philanthropic cost per person serviced by one-half—from the original target of $33 per person to $16 per unique individual served. What's more, nearly 378,000 hours per week are being saved in the time taken to collect water and walk to open-toilet areas. Now that time is being used for income-generating activities, school, community development and social enjoyment.
As of March 31, 2011, all Water.org—PepsiCo Foundation partners continue to report 98—100 percent repayment rates, and financing from commercial institutions has not decreased. The success of the WaterCredit program, in fact, has increased the confidence and ability of stakeholders to accelerate access to safe water and sanitation facilities on an even greater scale.
The Safe Water Network is a not-for-profit organization established to develop and deploy new, economically viable water purification technology to provide safe water to neglected populations—a critical global issue impacting nearly one billion people. Safe Water Network is not affiliated with any governmental organization and is governed by a board of philanthropic and business leaders. Safe Water Network serves as a catalyst for the development, optimization and validation of demand-driven, sustainable water solutions that have the potential to meet the needs of the world's poor at scale.
Through a three-year partnership with Safe Water Network, PepsiCo Foundation has pledged to implement safe water initiatives for village water systems in Ghana, India and Kenya, as well as rainwater harvesting systems in India. These projects are projected to impact more than 200,000 people. The project has provided access to safe water to over 142,000 people through a $3.5 million grant from PepsiCo Foundation since inception through April 2011.
Each project is being pursued through a "stage-gate" process in which pledged funding and resources are committed based on achieving project milestones each year.
Achievements to date include:
In 2008, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, one of the world's premier institutions dedicated to global sustainable development, and PepsiCo Foundation entered into a $6 million, three-year partnership. The partnership includes a series of high-impact, community-based activities and practical solutions across water, agriculture and climate.
The initiative is focused on improving water access, increasing water productivity and identifying innovative methods to find "more crop per drop" in water-stressed areas of China, India, Brazil and Africa. The countries targeted by the project present complementary opportunities to develop and demonstrate ways in which public and private-sector engagement could dramatically improve rural livelihoods and address water stress.
The research seeks to promote the sustainable and efficient development of water resources by developing and applying tools to support specific types of water management. These tools address selected, regionally focused questions related to crop selection contingent on climate, water and agricultural market scenarios, water infrastructure and efficient irrigation, policies for water and energy use and for agricultural market access, and risk management through insurance or other mechanisms.
The issues targeted and interventions vary by country:
Earth Institute's field tests and intervention activities in Punjab and Gujarat, India, for example, aim to advance water security across the country through a variety of technical approaches and applied methods. Working with small-hold farmers, private-sector groups and local government and NGOs, the Institute is testing water- and energy-saving practices and devices, such as laser land leveling and tensiometers, which read relative soil moisture to inform farmers about best irrigation timing and amounts to be applied to the fields. In Gujarat, Columbia Water Center is working closely with the state government to test energy subsidy reforms, which are expected to simultaneously improve water efficiency and crop productivity.
In 2010, this initiative engaged with 500 farmers in Punjab in a field test of tensiometers that demonstrated that 22 percent less water is needed to grow such crops as potatoes. In Gujarat GIS mapping of 400 farmers and 40 water companies was completed along with the enrollment of nearly 5,000 farmers who, in 2011, will participate in an energy subsidy reform pilot designed to reduce and more efficiently use water in agriculture.
PepsiCo Foundation is the founding private-sector investor in Diplomas Now, which has a proven approach to helping the toughest schools in America's largest cities succeed in helping every student graduate, ready for college or career. It is the first fully integrated approach that improves a school's curriculum and instruction as it provides students with the support they need.
For students, this means graduating with a meaningful diploma ready for the future. For schools, it means raising achievement scores and graduation rates and letting teachers teach by providing extra adults to help meet students' social and emotional needs. For the community, it means decreased dropout rates, a better-trained workforce and a new generation of local leaders.
Diplomas Now partners with the school community to reorganize the schedule so each student at risk has caring adults, and those adults have the tools to improve achievement. Working with administrators and teachers, a Diplomas Now team sets goals based on students' attendance, behavior and course performance. They develop a strategic plan, implement an early warning system to identify struggling students and regularly review the data. Teachers and the Diplomas Now team craft individual student plans that include more math and English time and teacher teams with shared planning time.
For the neediest students, Diplomas Now helps form support groups and connects them with community resources, such as counseling, health care, housing, food and clothing. Full-time young adults welcome students to school, call them if they don't show up, and offer tutoring. They intervene in problems and celebrate positive behavior. After school, they help with homework and involve students in service and enrichment programs.
The Foundation has played a pivotal role in Diplomas Now's funding of the highly successful Philadelphia pilot in 2008–2009, and was the private-sector funder of the 2009–2010 expansion of the model in Philadelphia, to Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans and San Antonio. Further funding of $6 million is taking the model to the next wave of expansion to Washington, D.C., New York, Detroit, Miami and Seattle.
Diplomas Now won the U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition in 2010, leveraging an additional $30 million dollars to expand and validate this innovative collaborative model. PepsiCo Foundation has committed over $11 million in building and testing the Diplomas Now model to date.
The ExCEL Scholarship Program is designed to support post-secondary education for children of employees of PepsiCo, its divisions, subsidiaries and eligible bottlers. Awards are offered by the PepsiCo Foundation for study at two- or four-year colleges and universities and vocational/technical schools worldwide. Since 1996, scholarships totaling almost $28 million have been awarded to 2,395 students in more than 50 countries.
© 2012 PepsiCo Inc.