After 10 incredible years, we're delighted to announce that thanks to GSK people around the world, our Save the Children partnership has now reached a fundraising total of over £6.2 million, helping more than 3.4 million children in 49 low/middle income countries.
Since 2013, our amazing people have undertaken a variety of activities to raise money – matched by GSK – for vital projects focusing on helping to get children access to vital healthcare wherever they live in the world.
Every day 15,000 children under the age of five die - most from preventable causes. Through our tailored programmes we’ve helped screen, treat and protect against diseases and helped more children survive infancy.
This extraordinary achievement was made possible by the incredible generosity of our people.
Orange United
Orange United is GSK’s employee engagement programme and enables anyone who works for GSK to get involved and fundraise for Save the Children. Currently there are 450 Orange United Ambassadors in 51 countries and their goal is to improve the lives of children. Every single penny raised by GSK employees is matched by GSK and contributes to Save the Children’s work globally.
Fundraising Challenges
GSK employees support Save the Children through every day adventures. From bake sales, to sporting challenges, to taking part in the flagship Trek for Kids; an epic six-day international trek to visit one of Save the Children’s programmes. Trek for Kids participants have raised over £800,000 to date, and 120 employees have visited programmes in Ethiopia and Kenya in person, and virtually in Vietnam. Employees are challenged with a fundraising target as well as to raise awareness and understanding of Save the Children's programme work, proudly being able to say that they've played their part.
Volunteering & Secondments
GSK supply and procurement professionals are helping Save the Children to become more efficient and effective, saving them at least $500,000 each year. In 2020 alone, GSK helped them save over £8 million for the next three years. In the same year, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a GSK volunteer helped to procure critical oxygen equipment for the partnership’s Nigeria programme.
GSK's global volunteering policy also allows employees to engage in skills-based and community-based volunteer roles during working hours, supporting Save the Children in their local communities and virtually across the world. More than 100 employees have worked with Save the Children since the start of the partnership.
Greg’s volunteer story
Gregory Keteleer, Head of Resourcing in Global Procurement at GSK started volunteering for Save the Children in October 2021. He worked with teams across West and Central Africa to improve their procurement and supply chain work. By sharing his expertise in sourcing and negotiation, he helped the local and regional teams to become more efficient and save vital funds. These savings can now be used to support programmes, ultimately helping more children.
"I conducted a survey in 2021 to assess the top five training priorities for the Supply Chain team across West and Central Africa, and delivered trainings and coaching sessions on how to report financial benefits and on specific category of purchases around construction and cash transfer.
I had the privilege of travelling to Ivory Coast and Senegal to meet local and regional supply chain teams. It was a great opportunity to meet my colleagues and deliver some negotiations training and test the content for future sessions and to support some local tender on fleet rental, furniture and laptops. In Senegal we worked to identify supply chain projects and priorities, and to establish a cash transfer preparedness plan for the region.”