How Kimberly-Clark Helps UNICEF Improve Children's Lives Globally
Partner since 2001
For more than two decades, Kimberly-Clark and UNICEF have been working together to build a more equitable world for every child. Funds raised through a combination of product sales, grants and employee campaigns help UNICEF provide supplies and otherwise maintain and scale health, sanitation, nutrition and other critical programs in nearly two dozen countries around the world.
In 2018, Kimberly-Clark received the Children First Award at the UNICEF Dallas Gala for its impactful partnership and commitment to improving the lives of children globally.
Supporting early childhood development
In 2019, Kimberly-Clark and UNICEF launched a three-year partnership in Latin America through Huggies’ global No Baby Unhugged initiative, through which 1.5 million children and 1.2 million caregivers in the region have been reached to date with quality early childhood development (ECD) services, including neonatal care.
The support focuses on expanding ECD initiatives in 15 target countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Efforts include:
creating baby-friendly environments at hospitals and clinics
training frontline workers to provide essential services to young children and their families
supporting families with childcare and providing a safe environment for healthy development
Kimberly-Clark is supporting similar initiatives in Vietnam and China.
In Vietnam, the support aims at improving neonatal health outcomes and reducing infant mortality in the country's north and central highland provinces. The goal is to impact the lives of 2 million babies over three years.
In China, Kimberly-Clark is supporting UNICEF through its Huggies brand to improve health and development outcomes for children up to age 3 and their caregivers in underdeveloped central and western areas of the country. The program is expected to directly benefit more than 7.3 million newborns and children and indirectly benefit over 14 million more.
Enhancing quality of life for girls
In Indonesia, Kimberly-Clark's Softex brand is supporting UNICEF to help adolescents improve key hygiene awareness behaviors, including safe menstrual health and hygiene (MHH), while giving girls from vulnerable communities the protection they need to keep going to school and lead a healthier and more hygienic life. Support through this partnership focuses on gender-responsive and disability-inclusive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) program implementation.
Protecting children during emergencies
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Kimberly-Clark donated more than 500,000 diapers and baby wipes and more than 100,000 feminine care products to UNICEF’s relief efforts in Puerto Rico. That same year, the company helped provide safe drinking water and health services to communities devastated by flooding in Peru and mudslides in Colombia.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimberly-Clark donated $2.5 million to UNICEF to support the global COVID-19 response. The funds supported prevention programs, provided hygiene and medical kits to schools and health facilities, as well as increased children's access to education, health and social services during the pandemic. Kimberly-Clark also contributed over $2.2 million to UNICEF’s response in India during the country’s peak outbreak in April 2020.
Increasing access to hygiene and sanitation
Kimberly-Clark’s Toilets Change Lives program unites the company's global and essential brands with opportunities to build nonprofit partnerships, consumer education and on-the-ground sanitation.
Through Toilets Change Lives, Kimberly-Clark’s Andrex brand helped fund UNICEF's Community Led Total Sanitation program, which provides hygiene and sanitation education and services to rural communities, reaching hundreds of thousands of people in Angola, Bangladesh and South Africa.
Kimberly-Clark's Neve brand supported UNICEF water, sanitation and hygiene programs in Brazil's Amazon region between 2016 and 2018, reaching over 1.2 million people.
In honor of Global Handwashing Day 2013, Kimberly-Clark donated $50,000 to support the installation of deep-well water pumps where needed to improve community access to clean, safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene.
Learn more about Kimberly-Clark's social impact in this 2020 report.
Learn more about how UNICEF and companies work together to create better futures for children.
Top photo: Eugenia, 11, washes her hands after learning about sanitation and hygiene during a community meeting in Calipanguela Village, Angola. UNICEF's Community Led Total Sanitation program reached 464,000 people in Angola with support from Kimberly-Clark. © UNICEF/Schermbrucker