Roche Türkiye's "Walking for Children" Project Marks Its 10th Year

This year, Roche Turkey employees were supported through initiatives they undertook to help children in need. Roche's flagship project, Roche Running for Children, which the company has sustained globally since 2003, continues to attract significant interest. Roche, the world's largest biotechnology company, continues to raise donations for child assistance campaigns through its employees who participate in the global aid initiative "Roche Running for Children." This initiative, which Turkey's organization joined in 2010, holds an important place in Roche's approach to sustainable corporate social responsibility. Roche's project extends beyond the communities where it operates and carries the mission of providing a brighter future for children deprived of basic social rights. The symbolic journey, which began in 2003 with 1,300 employees from 3 company regions, has brought together more than 230,000 employees from 164 regions to date. It has become a tradition over 15 years. Thanks to the growing voluntary contribution of Roche employees, donations exceeding CHF 18 million have been collected to date and distributed to various civil society organizations worldwide to be utilized in health and education projects implemented for children. Since its inception, the Roche Running for Children project has focused on initiatives for children in developing countries such as Malawi, Ethiopia and the Philippines. In these places where resources are limited, the goal is to promote sustainable change by contributing to educational infrastructure, training future educators, developing skill capacity, and advancing nutrition, health and hygiene conditions. The project, which brings together employees of Roche Pharma and Roche Diagnostics operating in Turkey within the Roche Group around a common purpose this year as well, is based on volunteerism. Donations collected by employees over one month through various activities and campaigns, and half of the company's matching contribution to this amount, are directed to education and health programs to improve the lives of children worldwide, while the other half supports Unicef Turkey's "Children of Agricultural Workers" and "Equality Between Girls and Boys" projects.