The MSC Foundation and UNICEF are celebrating the results of a 13-year partnership. Total donations from MSC's fundraising activities for UNICEF programs have passed 12 million euro (CAD $17.5 million.)
Partnering in six programs across eight countries since 2009, the MSC Foundation has helped UNICEF to support education for 8,000 children in 126 vulnerable communities in Brazil, fight malaria in Africa, assist China's food supplement program preventing child malnutrition, and deliver lifesaving ready-to-use therapeutic food treatments to more than 115,000 children with severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia and Malawi.
In 2019, the MSC Foundation was the first partner in the program “Plastic Waste Goes to School” in Ivory Coast. This three-pronged initiative is simultaneously supporting marginalized women waste collectors, recycling the plastic waste collected into bricks, and using these bricks to build eco-friendly classrooms in a country where 1.6 million children currently don't attend school because there is no place for them to learn.
To date, “Plastic Waste Goes to School” has trained 188 women who are now organized in a formal association, recycled around 616,000 kg of plastic waste and completed 112 modern classrooms, enabling 6,224 children to gain access to a quality education.
The MSC Foundation’s support for UNICEF includes the Get On Board for Children fundraising campaign on MSC Cruises ships to partnering in education, community support and emergency relief initiatives. The Foundation organizes advocacy activities to raise awareness of UNICEF's work, including through the song "I Can Believe: MSC for UNICEF" and edutainment activities on board the MSC Cruises fleet, which involves thousands of children and young people every year.
One of these initiatives is the KIDS UNITED magazine, which provides a way for children to learn about important topics as a part of their cruise experience. The MSC Foundation also provides public visibility, having included UNICEF in over 20 international events with a global audience and extensive media exposure.
The Foundation's support for UNICEF emergency response initiatives has most recently included assistance to communities devastated by flooding in Malawi, by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, by Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and by the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.
