Initiative
02/12/2010
Thailand: official launch of the Yim Kids association, supported by the Accor Foundation
The ceremony marking the official launch of the Yim Kids association was held on January 27th at the MGallery VIE hotel in Bangkok. Created on the initiative of Accor employees and supported by the Accor Foundation, its purpose is to help Thailand’s children in need.
The Yim Kids association
Yim Kids grew out of one of Accor’s international programs: “A Tree For A Child” (ATFAC), launched in Thailand in 2006.
Today, the association is continuing the projects initiated by the ATFAC program, relying on the Group’s 8,000 employees working in the 43 Accor hotels in Thailand. The goal is to finance educational and health projects to benefit children who are victims of poverty, often without access to education, basic nutrition or even a home.
Assistance programs have been implemented in two isolated communities in northern Thailand to rebuild schools and relay the distribution of locally produced organic rice and textiles within the Group’s hotel network.
In addition to these projects, new fundraising initiatives are furthering the activities of the association: to date, the main one is the “Accor Race to Survive”.
“Accor Race to Survive”
The “Accor Race to Survive” is indeed planned in Phuket on March 22-25.
For four days, teams from around the world will test their endurance in a series of events involving swimming, mountain biking, kayaking and running.
Participants will camp out at night on Lon Island, a small, isolated island southwest of Phuket, to enjoy a truly “local” experience.
The projects of Yim Kids
The funds raised by the association will support four projects:
• Finance the schooling of children living in the Bangkok slums at Mercy Centre. This school can accommodate 300 children. The cost of schooling per child is $57 per year.
• Finance healthcare for 63 orphans and abandoned children with AIDS at the Mercy Centre
• Provide new finishing equipment to the villagers of the island of Koh Lon, which was devastated by the tsunami. Over the long term, the increased revenue resulting from the use of the new equipment will finance the education and improve the living conditions of the island’s children.
• Finance the schooling of disadvantaged children in Phuket, whose parents lost everything in the tsunami in 2004.
The Accor Foundation
In 2008, Accor created the Accor Foundation to support local projects initiated by Group employees across the world, such as Yim Kids. To date, in the Asia-Pacific region, the Accor Foundation supports seven specific programmes that are helping to change the lives of people and communities in need.