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At Philip Morris International (PMI), we support charitable giving programs that improve living conditions in places our employees reside and work, as well as in the farming communities where we source our tobacco. We concentrate our giving efforts on five areas: Hunger and Poverty, Gender-based Violence, Education, Environmental Sustainability and Community Development, and Disaster Relief. These areas parallel many of the UN Millennium Development Goals, and we have chosen to focus on them because they are among the most critical issues affecting the countries where we operate.
In this section:
PMI supports programs that provide direct relief to poor and hungry people all over the world. But direct aid can only go so far, and we believe in empowering people to better their own living conditions. We support programs that reduce their dependence on charity through training, job creation, and micro-financing.
Domestic violence is the most common type of violence against women. It affects all areas of the world and every sector of society. We were one of the first corporations to become involved in the fight against violence in the home. Today, PMI supports a variety of programs ranging from awareness building to violence prevention, victim protection, and rehabilitation of those affected by domestic violence.
Every child has the right to an education. Nonetheless, a significant number of primary school age children cannot attend school every year. At PMI, we strive to ensure access to schooling for children living in communities where we do business, and also to improve the quality of education, from primary school to university and beyond.
More than 1 billion people in rural areas lack proper sanitation. Around the globe, deforestation is exacerbating this problem by degrading the soil, reducing rainfall, and encouraging vector-borne diseases. PMI supports several programs to protect and enhance natural resources, reforest the land, implement conservation agriculture, provide clean water, ensure food security, and develop important infrastructure. The projects we fund are diverse, but they have some key goals in common: long-term, sustainable results and self-sufficiency for the people concerned.
Disaster can strike anytime and anywhere. In 2010, natural disasters affected nearly 208 million people and resulted in $110 billion in economic cost, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. When disasters occur in a place where we operate, our local staff are on hand to find out the most essential needs of the community and how we can help. We offer immediate aid, often working hand in hand with local organizations, but we also stay on afterwards, helping to bring normalcy back to people's lives.