Bayer and Caritas finance health center in Haiti, Bayer Healthcare

Release Date: 2010-05-28

Leverkusen, May 28, 2010 – Long-term relief is at hand for earthquake-stricken Haiti: together with Caritas international, the Bayer Cares Foundation is financing a health center that will provide medical services to more than 30,000 people.

This was possible thanks to the commitment of Bayer employees who donated EUR 250,000 worldwide for the victims of the earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010. Bayer AG is topping this amount up by a further EUR 100,000, making the final donation worth EUR 350,000. The funds will help expand an existing Caritas medical station in Léogâne, the city in Haiti most severely affected by the earthquake, into a proper health center. The center will provide services above all to pregnant women and children and will also offer vaccination, health care and hygiene programs to the general population. In addition, a medical laboratory is to be set up. Around 80 percent of the city of Léogâne, which is some 30 kilometers from the capital Port-au-Prince, was destroyed in the earthquake.

Overall, Bayer employees from 34 countries participated in the fundraising campaign, which was initiated and coordinated by the Bayer Cares Foundation. In Germany alone, around 1,800 employees from all areas of the company made donations.

“I am extremely grateful to our employees for the huge contribution they made to this aid campaign – this shows just how seriously social responsibility is taken in our company,” said Dr. Richard Pott, Bayer Management Board member responsible for Human Resources and the Americas region and Chairman of the Bayer Cares Foundation. “In searching for a suitable project, it was important for us to find one that gave needy people a long-term perspective. That’s why we decided to use the donated funds to help reestablish Haiti’s almost completely destroyed health care system.”

“We are very grateful to Bayer employees around the world for their support,” says Oliver Müller, Head of Caritas international. “The project, which Caritas international will be in charge of implementing, will sustainably improve the health care situation in Léogâne, because it is now a matter of working with the local population to establish basic services. Improving medical provision is an important part of this.”

Through this expansion, the health center should become a central coordinating point not only for the local inhabitants but also for the smaller medical stations in Léogâne. As part of the project, all the facilities of the destroyed station will have to be restored or replaced. The center will be equipped with running water, an electricity supply, sanitary facilities and a disposal system, all utilities it did not have before the earthquake. The workforce at the health center will be taken from the local population. This will also give the people of Leógâne jobs and further education opportunities.

Through several initiatives, Bayer aid for Haiti will total more than EUR 1 million. Immediately after the earthquake, the Group provided emergency relief in the form of medicines worth more than EUR 650,000. Bayer HealthCare made available antibiotics, painkillers and anesthetics, Bayer CropScience supplied products for disease prevention, and Bayer Fußball GmbH also made a contribution: proceeds from friendly matches and donations made by the professional soccer players themselves amounted to EUR 60,000 collected for the victims in Haiti.

Type:	NORMAL
Company:	Bayer Healthcare
Country:	德国