responsibility
Mothercare Group Foundation Corporate Golf Day
Ian Peacock opens the Tirupur Maternity & Child Welfare Hospital, India - expanded and refurbished by Mothercare Group Foundation
Helping parents is at the heart of what we do and part of every business decision we make. We also realise that we can have an indirect involvement in helping parents and their children, through various charity and community partnerships.
We implement our community engagement and charitable work through three separate initiatives:
In October 2010 we launched our three-year global partnership with Save the Children - Born to Care. Over the next three years we aim to raise £1.75 million to support Save the Children's work to reduce childhood mortality around the world, and to lift children out of poverty in the UK.
It's a shocking fact that every year more than 8 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday many from easily preventable or treatable conditions such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. Despite living in the fifth richest country in the world, millions of children in the UK are growing up in poverty. It's hard to believe but there are many children in the UK who don't have a bed to sleep in.
At Mothercare, we can't think of two better reasons to support Save the Children's work - their values are intrinsically linked to ours. Our DNA is about caring for parents, and nothing is more important to them than the well being of their children.
Our Chief Executive Ben Gordon said: "I am thrilled to have Save the Children as our first Global Charity Partner. There is so much that we can achieve over the next three years to make a real difference to the lives of children and their parents. The timing is perfect as we are celebrating our 50th anniversary and our fundraising for Save the Children will form a key part of the celebrations. I have already seen so much enthusiasm and commitment; I am confident we will smash our three-year target."
We started our partnership with an initial donation of £50,000 and this will provide direct support to a project aimed at supporting migrant mothers and their babies working or living in Shanghai. All of our fundraising activities in our stores and offices (both in the UK and overseas) will be focused on raising money to meet and hopefully exceed our £1.75 million target.
Save the Children's global presence has helped us engage our Sourcing Offices in India, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and China. As our partnership develops we hope to include and engage our Franchise and Joint Venture partners in our fundraising activities and wherever possible to link them with the Save the Children offices in the countries where they operate.
Douglas Rouse, Corporate Partnerships Director at Save the Children, said: "The fact that Mothercare group will be supporting our work at home and abroad, in areas important to their staff and customers, is something we are incredibly excited about. By aligning our common purpose we will work together to improve the lives of mothers and their children across the world."
Mothercare is proud to have its own charitable foundation which was established in 2004. Between 2004 - 2011 we are delighted to have made donations in excess of £1 million to children's and parenting charities.
Regrettably, the Foundation is not accepting funding applications at present, although this situation may change in the future.
Community Events & Activities
We want to make a positive difference in the communities where our stores are located. Having a baby is an exciting time, but it can also be a worrying time particularly for first-time mums and dads. We aim to provide a welcoming environment where everyone is treated fairly and has the opportunity to learn from our experienced staff and expert visitors. We want to make the parenting journey an enjoyable time so helping mothers and fathers in the community is a positive step in the right direction.
'Baby and Me' advisory events
For one week in October 2010 we offered free Baby and Me Advisory events in 100 of our stores around the UK to over 500 parents-to-be. These events allowed parents-to-be to gather information about essential products related to the first stages of parenthood. There was also the opportunity for parents to obtain health advice from a local midwife in a relaxed, informal environment. Mothercare aims to be the best mother and baby specialist retailer by offering excellent advice and support to parents at every step of the parenting journey.
National Breastfeeding Awareness Week
During NBAW local midwives, health visitors, breastfeeding counselors and peer group supporters visit our larger stores to offer breastfeeding advice and support to expectant parents plus new mums and their partners. The UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe so any support and help we can give to professionals or parents to get access to the latest facts about all aspects of breastfeeding is of great help to mums and their babies.
Child Safety Week 2010
Child Safety week is led by The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), the UK's leading charity working to reduce the number of children and young people seriously injured, disabled or killed in accidents. Child Safety Week is CAPT's flagship community education campaign. It aims to raise awareness of the number of accidents that seriously injure or kill children and how to prevent them. Mothercare helped support CAPT to promote child safety week and held in-store activities with local professionals.
ELC Play Time every Tuesday
Early Learning Centre stores all run 'Playtime Tuesdays'. We believe play is an important part of a child's development. On Tuesday's at 10:00am parents can bring their children along to any ELC store and join in the activities which will help them learn about the importance of creative, imaginative and active play.
The Royal College of Midwives
In 2010, Mothercare became an Alliance Partner of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM). This partnership will bring benefits to our business and to midwives themselves. Our Chief Executive, Ben Gordon, said "We are delighted to be working so closely with the RCM. We see this as an opportunity to provide a conduit for Midwives to share healthcare messages with mums and mums-to-be who visit our stores. Meanwhile, we can only benefit from the expertise that RCM members have to offer".
This means we will be sharing experience, learning from each other and promoting key messages, particularly around breastfeeding, in our stores.
The first tangible evidence of the partnership is the launch of the Mothercare Award for Supporting Breastfeeding, which recognises a midwife who actively and effectively supports breastfeeding in the community.
In November 2010 Mothercare attended the RCM conference, taking an exhibition stand and hosting a breakfast seminar session.
