© I

nter

IKEA

Sys

tem

s B.V

. 20

13

November 4 - December 29, 2012

Soft Toys for Education Helping kids create their own future

© U

NIC

EF -

Kel

ley

Lync

h

Contents:• Cute, cuddly and ready to help

• Background on IKEA Foundation,

UNICEF and Save the Children

• Projects to be funded by Soft Toys

for Education 2012

• Where does the money go?

• Save the Children in focus

• UNICEF in focus

• Toys that teach

• Every soft toy counts

• Contact information

Soft Toys for Education 2012 Tis the season for Soft Toys for Education — one of the easiest, most effective and certainly cuddliest ways to help children help themselves, their families and their society for generations to come. This year, between November 4 – December 29, 2012, for every soft toy or children’s book bought, the IKEA Foundation will donate $1 to help fund education projects supported by UNICEF and Save the Children. Read on to learn how soft little toys can make a huge difference in children’s education around the world.

AT A GLANCE:

• Soft Toys for Education runs from November 4 – December 29, 2012

• For every soft toy or children’s book bought the IKEA Foundation will donate $1, split between education projects by UNICEF and Save the Children.

• Since 2003, Soft Toys for Education campaigns have raised €47.5 million, helping to improve the lives of more than 8 million children in 45 countries.

• Last year was the biggest yet, raising €12.4 milion.

PE291816

At IKEA, we see children as the most important people in the world. We believe all children have the right to a healthy, secure childhood and access to quality education, no matter where in the world they live. And because we value doing things together, we turn to our irresistible, huggable soft toys for help. Now in its ninth year, Soft Toys for Education is back November 4 – December 29, 2012 to raise money that gives kids

across Africa, Asia and Europe access to better education. The annual end-of-the-year drive is simple and straightforward: the IKEA Foundation donates $1 for every soft toy or kids’ book purchased. Last year was the best ever: the IKEA Foundation donated €12.4 million to UNICEF and Save the Children. Since 2003, €47.5 million has been generated. Funds raised are donated to UNICEF and Save the Children to support and extend

their projects that benefit children through better schooling, e.g. creating child-friendly schools with well-trained teachers for all children, including ethnic minorities and those with special needs. Soft Toys for Education has helped improve the lives of more than eight million children in 45 countries, which not only helps children, but also their families and societies for generations to come.

“I think Soft Toys for Education is great because it’s so unique and unprecedented anywhere in the world,” says Petra Hans, Program Manager, IKEA Foundation. “Through the efforts of millions of IKEA customers and co-workers, the IKEA Foundation is able to support these wonderful projects that have a long term effect on the wellbeing and future of children in developing countries. This is definitely a worthwhile effort.”

Cute, cuddly and ready to help

For every soft toy you buy

IKEA Foundation donates

€1 to help educate kids

PE327728

PE320974PE320488

Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children, delivering programmes and improving children’s lives in more than 120 countries worldwide. Working toward a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation, Save the Children’s mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

Learn more by visiting:www.savethechildren.netwww.facebook.com/savethechildren

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Learn more by visiting:www.unicef.org www.facebook.com/unicef

The IKEA Foundation The IKEA Foundation aims to improve opportunities for children and youth in developing countries by funding holistic, long-term programmes that can create substantial, lasting change. The Foundation works with strong strategic partners applying innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results in four fundamental areas of a child’s life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and sustainable family income. Currently-funded programmes benefit an estimated 100 million children.

Two of the IKEA Foundation’s main partners are UNICEF and Save the Children. IKEA, through the IKEA Foundation, is the largest global corporate donor to both organisations.

“We want to help people help themselves to a better everyday life today — and tomorrow, turning the cycle of poverty into a circle of prosperity,” says IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad.

Learn more by visiting: www.ikeafoundation.orgwww.facebook.com/IKEAFoundationblog.ikeafoundation.org

PROJECTS TO BE FUNDED BY THIS YEAR’S DONATIONS

EUROPE:

• LITHUANIA – Save the Children Developing Effective Alternatives

to Care Institutions

• ROMANIA – Save the Children Raising Children in a Stigma

Free Society

AFRICA:

• SCHOOLSFORAFRICA A UNICEF programme that targets

millions of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Funding from Soft Toy campaigns goes to work in:

• BURKINA FASO• ETHIOPIA• MADAGASCAR• MALAWI • MALI• NIGER• SOUTH AFRICA• MOZAMBIQUE

ASIA:

• BANGLADESH – Save the Children Protection for Empowerment Project

• BURMA/MYANMAR – Save the Children Children, Community, Civil Society:

Reducing Children’s vulnerability to Exploitation, Abuse, Violence and Neglect

• CAMBODIA – Save the Children Fighting discrimination and violence

in schools – for inclusive and child friendly quality education

• CHINA – Save the Children An Inclusive Education for Children

with Disabilities in China – UNICEF Schools for Asia - Early Childhood

Education for All

• INDONESIA – Save the Children Facilitating Family Based Care for

Children with Disabilities

• PHILIPPINES – Save the Children Promoting Quality and Equality in

Education for Children of Marginalized Communities in South Central Mindanao, Philippines

PE320982

Projects by UNICEF

Projects by Save the Children

Where does the money go?Since 2003, proceeds from Soft Toys for Education have benefitted 94 projects in 45 countries. Sev-eral projects receive funding for more than one year. This map shows the regions with projects funded through Soft Toys for Education.

Learn more by visiting: www.ikeafoundation.org

© Save the Children-Pernilla Norström-Bangladesh-2008

Save the Children in focus

Reaching the most marginalised childrenSince 2005, Soft Toys for Education has partnered with Save the Children–the world’s leading independent organisation for children. Its education programmes reach children at risk — girls, ethnic minorities, and children affected by rural poverty, HIV/ AIDS, conflict and natural disasters — from early childhood through young adulthood. Save the Children works in more than 120 countries to create a better foundation and more enthusiasm for learning with

programmes that focus on: early childhood and preschool learning, basic education, literacy, school health and nutrition. These projects make it easy to participate (even for children who work or have missed years of schooling), prepare toddlers for school and makes the lessons meaningful to children’s lives and local culture. What’s more, Save the Children meets the needs of children with disabilities who might otherwise never be able to go to school.

Seeing the effects of Soft Toys for Education Every year, Save the Children invites small groups of IKEA co-workers to visit their projects and see how the support of the IKEA Foundation and IKEA co-workers and customers helps children in developing countries. Here’s what Kai Hartman, an IKEA co-worker in Germany, had to say about his field visit to Bangladesh:

“For us, school is taken for granted. But during our visits we were reminded over and over how much it can mean being able to learn. The thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm of the children is obvious. They get up in the morning happy to go to school. If we are honest, with us it was not always so.”

For more co-worker thoughts and experiences, visit the IKEA Foundation IWitnessGlobalCitizenBlogathttp://blog.ikeafoundation.org/.

A closer look at BangladeshThere are approximately 7 million children with disabilities in Bangladesh, whose basic needs often go unmet and who are extremely vulnerable to violence and exploitation. They are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and hazardous labour due to limited educational and vocational opportunities and harmful social perceptions.

Project - Community-based Protection and Empowerment of Children with Disabilities: The project will give children with disabilities, in three districts of Bangladesh, improved mental, physical and psychosocial wellbeing (through improved protection from violence and discrimination and increased capacity for self-employment).

The project works with their caregivers, communities, service providers, school authorities, national level decision makers and children with disabilities themselves. An estimated 4,400 girls and boys with disabilities will benefit from the Protection and Empowerment Project.

© IKEA/Fredrik Bengtsson

Soft Toys for Education already funds seven countries through UNICEF’s Schools for Africa (SFA) initiative: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger and South Africa. Funds from the 2012 Soft Toys for Education will also support another Schools for Africa country, Malawi.

In sub-Saharan Africa, there has been rapid and significant progress in educational access in the past decade. However, there are still some 29 million school-aged children who should not be but are out of school in the region (UNESCO Institute for Statistics database, 2011). Of those who are enrolled, as many as half of primary school children drop out before attaining the necessary knowledge and skills, due to the low quality of education they receive.

For many millions of children in Africa who currently subsist on less than €1 a day, skills like reading, writing and arithmetic are keys toward a better job later in life.

Seeing the effects of Soft Toys for Education

Every year, UNICEF invites small groups of IKEA co-workers to visit their projects and see how the support of the IKEA Foundation and IKEA co-workers and customers helps children in developing countries. Here’s what Fredrik Bengtsson, an IKEA co-worker in Sweden, had to say about his field visit to Madagascar:

“As long as these children have not reached their destination, the journey is not over. A child-friendly school building is a very good start, but a sustainable future requires a focus on the entire community, the ability and desire to get to school, hygiene, trained teachers, school supplies, etc. The list of needs is long. But UNICEF is listening. And they act with incredible innovation, even with the smallest means.”

UNICEF in focus

Transforming lives through education

A closer look at MadagascarIn Madagascar, the current situation makes policy work challenging, but UNICEF has taken on a facilitation role using this situation as an opportunity for advocacy and by piloting child-friendly schools and documenting impact to promote child-friendly national quality standards. Peace education interven-tions, which aim to promote sustain-able peaceful co-existence and national reconciliation through youth groups and through the education system, will be strengthened, with a special focus on out-of-school children and youth.

Here are some results seen in Madagas-car so far: • Capacity building of pre-primary teach-

ers supported, complemented with classroom construction and provision of age-appropriate ECD materials ben-efitting more than 25,000 learners.

• School materials provided to 111,000 vulnerable children in 22 school dis-tricts to reduce the cost barriers to education.

• Low enrolment rates in post-primary education improved through commu-nity mobilization and construction of dormitories benefiting more than 3,000 vulnerable girls.

• In response to tropical storm BINGIZA, 411 temporary classrooms were set up, and 272 schools-in-a-box and 134 rec-reation kits were distributed to 22,390 students.

For more co-worker thoughts and experiences, visit the IKEA Foundation IWitness Global CitizenBlogathttp://blog.ikeafoundation.org/.

© Fredrik Bengtsson

Toys that teach, too

New to the soft toys family this year are forest friends from the VANDRING series - like foxes, a hedgehog squeaky toy, a bear, an owl hand puppet and a hare that encourage curiousity and caring about nature and the environment. They appear on different VANDRING textiles, designed by Ann-Cathrine Sigrid Ståhlberg, and other children’s products. Plus, they’re characters in the IKEA FAMILY children’s book The Hedgehog Leaves Home written by Ulf Stark and illustrated by Ann-Cathrine. “I hope that VANDRING will teach children a little bit about nature and animals, and most of all get them to be curious and not afraid of it,” says Ann-Cathrine. “We need new generations to care about nature and animals.” Old favourites are back, too, like veggies TORVA broccoli and TORVA carrot, in addition to classics like GOSIG MUS mice and FABLER BJÖRN teddy bear, who in various forms has been with Soft Toys for Education since the start. Soft toys aren’t just good at hugging and listening, they’re teachers, too, since different ways of play stimulate various kinds of learning. Aside from being comforting and playful, soft toys ecourage role play that helps children develop social skills. At IKEA, we collaborate with experts from different fields of children’s development to create products that are safe and spark creativity, imagination, joy and education.

PE282189 PE282191PE308425PE291815

VANDRING RÄV soft toy,setof2$7.99

PE284460

FABLER BJÖRN soft toy $2.99

NEWPE299749

KLAPPAR CIRKUS soft toy $5.99

NEWPE299751

KLAPPAR CIRKUS soft toy rabbit$5.99

NEWPE299748

KLAPPAR glove puppet snake$7.99

NEWPE291812

VANDRING IGELKOTT squeakytoy$2.99

NEWPE299755

KLAPPAR LEOPARD soft toy$16.99

NEWPE291813

VANDRING BJÖRN soft toy $16.99

NEWPE291816

VANDRING UGGLA glove puppet$4.99

NEWPE291814

VANDRING HARE soft toy $7.99

Every soft toy countsFrom the smallest of soft toys and finger puppets to play foods and textile baby books, every soft toy counts toward raising money for Soft Toys for Education during November 4 and December 29, 2012. Here’s a peek at a few new soft toys:

NEWPE291815

VANDRING RÄV soft toy, setof2$7.99

THANK YOU!

Soft Toys for Education

PE321156

For product loans, image requests or more information please contact:

Madeleine Löwenborg-FrickPublic Relations ManagerIKEA CanadaT: 905-637-9440 x6378 madeleine.lowenborg-frick@ikea.com