Making the World Onederful with THE One
THE One cares for its staff, its customers and the planet. CSR is an important part of the company’s DNA and is embodied by its sustainable development programme called ‘THE Onederworld’.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, THE One, home fashion brand of the Al Mazroui Group, strives to make a difference both locally and abroad. Here, the company hires people of determination and does volunteering through different initiatives. Overseas, Thomas Lundgren, CEO of THE One personally launched THE Onederworld, a sustainable community development programme, in Kenya back in 2008.
In conjunction with Free the Children (recently rebranded as WE), THE One has worked on both the Pimbiniet (Kenya) and Barind (India) Community Projects. Both five-year plans towards self-sufficiency through holistic community development followed WE’s unique ‘Adopt a Village’ model. Fully participatory, the idea is to truly empower the entire community by creating a strong and equal partnership, ensuring the population takes ownership of all the projects from A to Z. These multi-faceted holistic programmes truly empower children and their families to break out of poverty, as it covers four key aspects.
1. Education: this facet of the programme is not only about building a school as the cornerstone of each village but also about providing the support and resources necessary to secure teachers’ salaries, as well as educational tools. This will in turn improve adult literacy rates and education, as parents learn from and get inspired by their children.
2. Health: promoting preventative healthcare through basic family nutrition and medical educational initiatives, reducing the rate of various poverty-related diseases and improving maternal health, while reducing infant mortality. From mobile health clinics to lunch programmes, these initiatives prevent disease and improve community health.
3. Alternative Income: helping villagers to establish sustainable micro-businesses so that they can take charge of their future and become self-sufficient. The programme specifically concentrates on empowering disadvantaged women, helping them to generate a sustainable source of income. It is one of the key aspects of getting youth to attend school. Indeed, if their parents do not have the ability to care for them, children will be sent to work instead.
4. Water and Sanitation: installing wells and other clean water systems as well as latrines. Access to clean water improves the community’s health and reduces the burden of chores placed on girls, allowing them to receive an education. The Onederworld programme especially focuses on increasing enrolment of female students.
On top of benefiting these villages, THE Onederworld is also a way for THE One’s staff to be part of something bigger and make a difference, for its manufacturers to contribute a ‘feel-good’ percentage of their turnover and for customers to shop and do good at the same time. THE One sums up its objective to find meaning in a material world in a few words: ‘The better we do, the more good we can do!’
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, THE One, home fashion brand of the Al Mazroui Group, strives to make a difference both locally and abroad. Here, the company hires people of determination and does volunteering through different initiatives. Overseas, Thomas Lundgren, CEO of THE One personally launched THE Onederworld, a sustainable community development programme, in Kenya back in 2008.
In conjunction with Free the Children (recently rebranded as WE), THE One has worked on both the Pimbiniet (Kenya) and Barind (India) Community Projects. Both five-year plans towards self-sufficiency through holistic community development followed WE’s unique ‘Adopt a Village’ model. Fully participatory, the idea is to truly empower the entire community by creating a strong and equal partnership, ensuring the population takes ownership of all the projects from A to Z. These multi-faceted holistic programmes truly empower children and their families to break out of poverty, as it covers four key aspects.
1. Education: this facet of the programme is not only about building a school as the cornerstone of each village but also about providing the support and resources necessary to secure teachers’ salaries, as well as educational tools. This will in turn improve adult literacy rates and education, as parents learn from and get inspired by their children.
2. Health: promoting preventative healthcare through basic family nutrition and medical educational initiatives, reducing the rate of various poverty-related diseases and improving maternal health, while reducing infant mortality. From mobile health clinics to lunch programmes, these initiatives prevent disease and improve community health.
3. Alternative Income: helping villagers to establish sustainable micro-businesses so that they can take charge of their future and become self-sufficient. The programme specifically concentrates on empowering disadvantaged women, helping them to generate a sustainable source of income. It is one of the key aspects of getting youth to attend school. Indeed, if their parents do not have the ability to care for them, children will be sent to work instead.
4. Water and Sanitation: installing wells and other clean water systems as well as latrines. Access to clean water improves the community’s health and reduces the burden of chores placed on girls, allowing them to receive an education. The Onederworld programme especially focuses on increasing enrolment of female students.
On top of benefiting these villages, THE Onederworld is also a way for THE One’s staff to be part of something bigger and make a difference, for its manufacturers to contribute a ‘feel-good’ percentage of their turnover and for customers to shop and do good at the same time. THE One sums up its objective to find meaning in a material world in a few words: ‘The better we do, the more good we can do!’
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