The Asia Foundation

Corporate & Foundation Partners

SUPPORTING VULNERABLE POPULATIONS IN ASIA

In recent years, corporations and foundations have begun to adjust their philanthropic and community engagement priorities to reflect an increasingly interconnected world. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained traction as a crucial part of modern business practices, with many corporations taking a more active role in protecting and supporting the people and environments in which they operate. As a result, many corporations and foundations have turned to The Asia Foundation to implement cutting edge, relevant development programs in Asia. In turn, The Asia Foundation's corporate and foundation partners have helped to fill a crucial gap in funding for our programs. While public funding often focuses on long-term developmental goals, private funding is responsive to immediate needs and allows us to adjust rapidly as circumstances change on the ground. Without private support, many of our current programs would not exist, including those benefitting factory workers in China; illiterate youth in Cambodia; orphans in Mindanao, Philippines; and women in post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia.

We are proud to feature some of our partnerships below. Our partners are also recognized at our events, in publications and press releases, and through international media networks.

Corporations Boeing Chevron Coca-Cola Levi Strauss Macy's Inc. Microsoft Vodafone Wal-Mart

Foundations AARP Del Monte Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Give2Asia Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Henry Luce Foundation The McConnell Foundation Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation United Way

CORPORATIONS

Increased pollution and degradation of natural resources are serious challenges and consequences resulting from China's rapid industrial development. As China's capital, Beijing faces extensive environmental challenges including huge energy consumption, severe water scarcity, air pollution, and traffic congestion. To begin to reverse this trend, The Asia Foundation partnered with Boeing to establish an environmental education program that is designed to build the environmental conservation awareness of primary and secondary school students in Beijing, China. This project reached 6,400 students and 120 teachers in 4 pilot schools in Beijing, as well as the families of the 6,400 students.
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The Asia Foundation has partnered with Chevron on ten initiatives since 1995, ranging from science education in the Philippines to economic development in Bangladesh. A large portion of Chevron's support has funded a scholarship program for Cambodian girls at risk for trafficking. Recently, Chevron supported "America's Role in Asia," a program focused on U.S.-Asia cooperation.
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Coca-Cola supports our Rural Reading Festivals program in Cambodia. The program promotes literacy at high schools by renovating school libraries, enhancing librarian training, establishing essay contests, and organizing reading festivals. Coca-Cola's support will expand this program's reach to an additional 18,000 Cambodian youth.
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Since the late 1990s, Levi Strauss & Co. and the Levi Strauss Foundation have partnered with The Asia Foundation to address migrant workers' rights in China's industrialized hubs. We built a cross-sector network of NGO professionals, officials, and journalists in China to create a unique, high-impact program, resulting in improved factory conditions and policies. Since then, the program has contributed to positive and lasting change and expanded to include not only counseling, legal aid services, and training on labor rights, but also trainings on occupational safety, hygiene and healthcare, safe sex and HIV/AIDS prevention, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships. Ten years later, the program has benefited more than one million workers in one thousand factories in twenty-two cities in China's Pearl River Delta, Lower Yangtze River Valley, and in Beijing.
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In 2006, Macy's, Inc. awarded a three-year grant to The Asia Foundation to provide scholarships for 30 migrant women workers to attend vocational school and university-level adult learning programs in Nanjing, China. These programs afford migrant women the opportunity to acquire skills necessary for professional growth and development. By implementing the scholarship program, the Foundation's partner organization in Nanjing gained deeper understanding of migrant women workers' needs and leveraged resources from both the government and other donors to build 104 libraries, 45 training centers, and 243 legal aid and counseling centers for migrant women workers; conduct six financial literacy training workshops; and provide various vocational skills trainings that have benefited more than 2,300 migrant workers.
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Microsoft's cash and in-kind gifts have helped establish community technology centers in Cambodia, Indonesia and China. In Cambodia, 255,000 women visited the centers in the first 10 months of the 2003-2004 program. In Indonesia, the centers provided web training for election observers and research tools for journalists throughout 2005. As of January 2008, Microsoft's support had established four computer training centers in China's Guangdong Province, training nearly 10,000 migrant workers and impacting over 20,000 since 2005.
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Vodafone's support for diplomats from India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) allowed them to participate on a tour created by the Foundation's exchange programs group. The tour focused on U.S. foreign policy and its implications for the bilateral relationship with India. Participants reported that the program enhanced their understanding of the United States and American politics.
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A majority of the estimated 10 million migrant laborers in Guangdong province, China are women between the ages of 17 and 25 that often have acquired less than a middle school education. Since 2006, Wal-Mart has funded The Asia Foundation to conduct a scholarship program for migrant women workers in Guangdong to return to their studies and enroll in vocational schools in the area; 70 of these women have completed their coursework and, as of the end of 2008, were engaged in internships that are designed to serve as a spring board for job opportunities. By 2010, it is expected that all 70 students will have completed their vocational training and completed internships in their professional field of choice.
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FOUNDATIONS

AARP's contribution helped our signature education program, Books for Asia, distribute more than 100,000 books annually to more than 1,700 schools, universities, teacher training colleges, municipal libraries, and civil society organizations in the Philippines. The quality of and access to education has deteriorated in the Philippines due to declining investment, endemic corruption, and population growth. Assistance is especially critical for Mindanao, where literacy can be 23 percentage points below the national average.
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The Del Monte Foundation, Inc., committed to expanding programs that help schools deliver better services to their students, is partnering with The Asia Foundation's Books for Asia program to distribute 12,600 books to nearly 250 public elementary schools in the province of Bukidnon, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. This project will strengthen and expand educational opportunities in these underserved communities.
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Building Capacity for Public Library Institutions in Vietnam is an 18-month project to support public Internet access and improve the quality and impact of public library institutions through training of library staff. The project is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and leverages The Asia Foundation's relationships with the Vietnamese government, National Library of Vietnam, and local partner organizations.
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A U.S.-based public charity, Give2Asia works with donors in the U.S. to support charitable groups and causes in Asia. Through its partnership with Give2Asia, The Asia Foundation has received funding to support a variety of programs, including: post-tsunami recovery projects in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia; post-earthquake recovery projects in China; girls' education in Afghanistan; and many others.
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Through its partnership with the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, The Asia Foundation has expanded its legal training programs for women, men, and youth in Afghanistan to increase public understanding of the need for equal rights for women. In Vietnam, we have partnered on an anti-trafficking project to promote safe migration education for children.
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In 2008, The Asia Foundation began a three-year partnership with the Goldman Fund to build an integrated series of clean water projects focused on reducing pollution in China, Laos, and Vietnam, helping to improve human and environmental health throughout the region.
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The Asia Foundation's relationship with the Henry Luce Foundation dates back to 1974. The Asia Foundation has administered the Asian portion of the Luce Foundation's Luce Scholars Program, helping over 500 young American graduates gain experience in and understanding of the Asia-Pacific region.
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The McConnell Foundation is one of The Asia Foundation's most significant donors to our Nepalese programs. McConnell Foundation grants have supported Community Mediation and Strategic Initiatives in Peace projects.
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The Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of women throughout the world by providing them with scholarships to institutions of higher learning, giving them the chance to pursue professional careers and build better lives for themselves and their families. In 2010, The Asia Foundation began a partnership with the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation that is currently providing 476 women in Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Malaysia, and Vietnam with full university scholarships.

   

				Watch the video to learn the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation's history:
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The Asia Foundation has worked with United Way International on a "Know Your Rights" program for women plantation workers in Malaysia, serving over 800 women in 2007. In addition, in 2008, United Way International awarded The Asia Foundation support for a two-year project to provide microcredit services to women in Aceh, Indonesia.
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