Wall’s ‘shares 1000 good deeds’ with date flavoured Viennetta: Caring for Indonesian Children Education

Entering the 62^nd year of Indonesian independence, education in Indonesia is still experiencing dark period and backwardness, with 1.2 million children still being deprived from their rights to access to education. ¹ According to the data from the Department of National Education in 2006, this figure has the tendency to increase. Many outstanding Indonesian children have been forced to drop out of school due to financial problems. They are forced to work to help their family earn their daily bread and consequently they have toabandon their education which is a key to a better future.

In fact education is the key that determines human capital quality essential for the existence of sustainable economic development and civil society quality of a nation. In other words, the quality of human capital has a strategic function both in economic and non-economic terms. According to the United Nations, Indonesia’s Human Development Index in 2006 was still below 0.800 or 0.709 which means Indonesia could not be classified among developed nations, like the neighbouring countries such as Singapore whose HDI reaches 0.916 or Malaysia with 0.805.²

Triggered by its care and concern over Indonesian children’s education, as the main activity of the launch of Viennetta’s new variant with date flavour, Wall’s is conducting a program called ‘Berbagi 1000 Kebaikan’ aimed at helping children from underprivileged communities to return to school with the fund raised from the sales of Viennetta ice cream which will be distributed through Dompet Dhuafa.

Through the ‘Berbagi 1000 Kebaikan’ program, Wall’s will donate Rp1.000 from the sale of each package of date flavoured Viennetta ice cream, as well as other variants that sell successfully. The fund gathered will be given to 1000 children from underprivileged families with outstanding academic performance in 33 provinces in Indonesia through a reliable organization, Dompet Dhuafa. This program is aimed at preventing school drop out. ‘Berbagi 1000 Kebaikan’ kicked off on September 3 (approaching the Ramadhan fasting month), which is the special moment to share and give to other beings. This program will end on December 20, 2007.

Andrie Darusman, PT Unilever Indonesia Ice Cream Marketing Manager said, “Through the ‘Wall’s Berbagi 1000 Kebaikan with Vienneta’ program Wall’s wants to share its deeds and has a role in the Indonesian education. Wall’s has grown together with the Indonesian community. For this, Wall’s would like to encourage Indonesian families together with Viennetta toto support the education of students from under privileged communities having good academic performanceby donating their money to make sure that those children would be able to continue their education. Our social mission is to give an opportunity to those students to accomplish at least their basic education. Moreover, this program is alsoaimed at nurturing children’s empathy for their unfortunate fellows.”

Having the same opinion with Andrie, Komaruddin Hidayat,Rector of State Islamic University supports ‘Wall’s Berbagi 1000 Kebaikan with Vienneta’ program. About education, Komaruddin pointed out, “In the future, concerns and commitment to the national education system quality improvement should be a benchmark to assess each element of the community including religious leaders, businessmen, politicians, social workers and state officials. In addition, local and multi national companies which have shown real commitments, pragmatic and are solution oriented towards the problems in education must be given various incentives.”

“For example, “Wall’s Berbagi 1.000 Kebaikan Bersama Viennetta” program conducted by PT Unilever Indonesia through Wall’s ice cream indicates that as one of the leading brands which is responsible and cares, Wall’s chose a very simple means, to contribute in basic education through its product sales. We can imagine if each family donates Rp1.000 from each Viennetta product, there are 1.000 under privileged Indonesian children who have the opportunity to continue their studies to a higher level,” Komaruddin continued.

Ahmad Juwaini, Drector of Resources Dompet Dhuafa shared the same view and is delighted in welcoming this program. Ahmad stated, ”Upon learning about the ‘Berbagi 1000 Kebaikan’ program, we feel grateful and we welcome this cooperation with open heart. We understand that in order to resolve the problems of education in Indonesia we need the involvement of the entire parts of the community to help those children who are facing the threat of school drop out because they need knowledge and skills in facing their challenges in the future. God willing, we can keep an eye on the academic performance of the children who received donation from Wall’s, by relying on our experience, expertise, human resources and our vast network.”

“Wall’s Berbagi 1.000 Kebaikan Bersama Vienneta” is part of our social responsibility to the community. To make this possible, Wall’sis working together with a number of parties in conducting a series of activities to convey the message of the importance to share with others and how badly is education in Indonesia needs our attention because its condition is deteriorating. For this purpose, Wall’s is working together with Prof. Dr. Komaruddin Hidayat, Rector of State Islamic University who is also an education observer; Ratih Sanggarwati, a celebrity having a great philanthropic spirit and caring for education and Dompet Dhuafa as an organization that will manage and distribute the funds.

“We hope to move the hearts of many Indonesian people because there are so many children who have been forced to drop out of schools and they need our help. Wall’s Viennetta’s wish to increase the awareness of Indonesian families to empathize and to share with other unfortunates human beings could hopefully be achieved for the sake of Indonesian children education quality improvement. We will continue to convey the message that good education is the key to culture development and prosperous nation,” Andrie concluded.

1) Data From Research and Development Body, Department of National Education, 2006

2) IPM is the measurement of comparison in hopes in life, literacy, education and living standards for all countries in the world. Data from Wikipedia - Wikimedia Foundation, Inc 2007