Humanitarian Aid

When disaster strikes, we are ready to contribute our expertise and, where appropriate, our products, services and logistics capabilities to assist the emergency relief organisations on the scene. Decisions about whether or not to support relief efforts are made primarily by the local Roche company, in consultation with the Corporate Issue Taskforce and/or Corporate Donations and Sponsorship. Roche policies specifically preclude drug donations except in disaster relief situations or other exceptional circumstances.

We believe that the most effective form of humanitarian aid involves developing and maintaining sustainable healthcare for people in distress in the world’s poorest countries. Projects need to take into account local needs and infrastructure capacity and be aimed at enabling local communities to develop long-term strategies for the prevention of disease. The focus shouldn’t be on medical treatment only (end-of-pipe solutions). We try to work with local authorities and partners who share our commitment to long-term solutions and who are prepared to make adequate contributions of their own e.g. by providing essential infrastructure or education.

Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, Roche launched a response within a matter of hours. The Corporate Issue Taskforce assessed the situation together with regional management teams, who in turn contacted local authorities and relief and aid organisations. Corporate Donations and Sponsorship then immediately released all locally available stocks of antibiotics in affected countries for use in relief operations and also supplied antibiotics to selected international relief agencies who co-ordinated their delivery to the people who needed them. In all, Roche supplied enough antibiotics to treat about 80,000 patients. In addition, Roche employees around the world donated money to help rebuild the communities devastated by the tsunami.

The Roche Employee Action and Charity Trust (Re&Act) is an independent trust, which supports humanitarian programs and community rebuilding projects, especially in developing countries, both on an ongoing basis and for rebuilding projects after disasters. The purpose of Re&Act is to receive, administer and distribute voluntary financial contributions made by Roche employees or organisations and ensure that donations are effectively channelled into specific projects which also harness the company’s knowledge and resources.

Founded and supported by Roche and its employees, the goal of Re&Act is to provide sustainable support for selected projects with charitable organisations around the world. While Roche as a company can assess and deploy a range of resources for both emergency and continuing needs, Re&Act reviews each situation to determine additional initiatives requiring funding and for which employee donations could be applied.

The work of Re&Act is done in three ways:

• Managing donations:
  Re&Act manages and monitors project donations to ensure they are used effectively.
• Responding to global emergencies:
  Re&Act works to channel funds to best support humanitarian needs and community restoration in the event of natural disasters or other global emergencies focused on developing countries. Financial contributions and available skills and expertise are pooled and managed to fully support the specific projects and their changing needs over the longer term.
• Rebuilding funding:
  Re&Act maintains relationships with key organisations to identify opportunities where support may be needed and to work with them on long-term, sustainable projects to ensure the greatest potential impact.

Re&Act is governed by an independent board made up of members from the global Roche organisation who are responsible for funds management, for potential programmes assessment, and for monitoring and reviewing the funded projects. Operating in line with the Corporate Roche Policy on Donations and noncommercial Sponsorship, Re&Act work focuses on a small number of projects where the contributions can make a real difference. Current projects supported by Re&Act include education projects in Malawi enabled by the Roche Children's Walk, the Phelophepa Health Care Train in South Africa, School rebuilding projects in Haiti and Pakistan as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross Clean Water Project.