IKEA Customers Help Bring Smiles and Cheer to Young Children in Southern Thailand

IKEA Thailand customers have helped to bring some cheer and smiles to young children living in Southern Thailand. Thanks to their wholehearted, and generous support of IKEA’s “Twice the Joy-Share yourToy” community initiative, more than 1,500 soft toys were presented to young students living in Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani provinces last week. The program was organized by IKEA Thailand in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Thailand and Save the Children Thailand. During the campaign period of November 4, 2012-January 12, 2013, IKEA customers played their part by purchasing an IKEA soft toy and dropping it into a donation collection bin at the IKEA Bangna store. Every toy donated by a customer was matched with another from IKEA Thailand. The toys were presented to the students by representatives from IKEA, UNICEF, and Save the Children last week. They were gratefully accepted and embraced by many of the children including Yala student, Nura-aimeMangae who said: “I am really grateful for the toys. I will take good care of it. In return, I wish you all happiness and I promise thatI will be nice and kind.” Making a Difference Globally As well as donating toys, IKEA Thailand customers contributed to IKEA’s “Toys For Education” global fundraising campaign which ran concurrently from November 4, 2013 until 12 January, 2013. As part of this, the IKEA Foundation (IKEA’s philanthropic arm), donated 1 EUR - for every soft toy or hand puppet sold at IKEA stores worldwide – to support global youth education programs managed by UNICEF and Save the Children. Overall, the 2012-13 “Toys For Education” program raised 9,018,171 EUR, and IKEA Thailand contributed 85,271 EUR. “Our sincere thanks and appreciation to every customer who contributed to both our ‘Twice the Joy-Share yourToy’ and ‘Toys For Education’ programs,” said SupharoekWichianchot,Deputy Business Navigation Manager, IKEA Thailand. He added, “It was also exciting and terrific to run a local and global campaign concurrently with our community partners, UNICEF and Save the Children - the customer response to the programs exceeded our expectations. And more importantly, the toys collected and donated were enthusiastically received by the children in Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani.” The “Toys For Education” program was launched by IKEA, UNICEF and Save the Children in 2003. Since then, the campaign has raised more than 56.5 million EUR (2,260 million baht) to help improve the lives of more than eight million children in 45 countries. -KPA- Click for photo release at www.thaipr.net

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