TNS Fundraising Hits the Ground Walking

TNS has announced a commitment to raise US$387,000 by the end of 2007 to fund a pre-school educational project in Cambodia, supported by UNICEF, the United Nation's Children's Fund. The 'Imagine...' initiative kicked off today with a 'Walk to Work' day.

TNS has pledged $50,000 to date, with a further $80,000 promised by the end of 2005, $132,000 in 2006 and $125,000 in 2007, to be raised globally with the support of TNS employees. Today's starter saw staff from 15 TNS offices around the world, including London, San Francisco, Barcelona and Kuala Lumpur, raise money by walking into work, in recognition of the hardships that many Cambodian children face in travelling to school.

TNS donated $250,000 to UNICEF at the beginning of 2005, $200,000 going immediately to education and child protection projects in the tsunami-affected regions of Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The Pre-School Education Project in Cambodia aims to expand access to pre-schools for 14,500 children aged 3-5 years and reduce dropout and repetition rates. According to recent research, only 50% of Cambodian children complete their primary school education, and pre-school helps them prepare for the challenge of full-time education. TNS will support UNICEF's work in six provinces to build 120 new community pre-school shelters and train approximately 950 community pre-school teachers on child development and child centred teaching.

Says CEO Mike Kirkham: 'We operate in 70 countries and were keen to partner with a global charitable organisation, so that our employees around the world could identify with the project and raise funds to support it ... The widespread positive response to the announcement of our relationship with UNICEF indicates how proud our staff feel about TNS' participation in this fundraising work'.

Congratulations from DRNO to our 100+ TNS readers around the world, especially those with sore feet at present. The two agencies are online at www.tns-global.com and www.unicef.org.uk.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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