Bostik, the adhesive solutions business line of the Arkema group, and Ontex, a leading international personal hygiene group, has donated over one million feminine hygiene products to support education for girls in Zambia. Two containers each filled with 507,000 packets of feminine hygiene products and shipped by Ontex docked in Lusaka (Zambia) on April 25th.This action was initiated a few months ago by Maydred Siamuzwe, an accountant working for Bostik in Stafford (United Kingdom), when she put a donation box in her workplace cafeteria, hoping to gather packets of feminine hygiene products for girls in her hometown near Lusaka (Zambia). Upwards of 500 million women world-wide are living each month in period poverty due to financial constraints. In some countries like Zambia, many girls miss several days of schools until dropping out because of a lack of access on basic feminine hygiene.Bostik’s product line includes adhesives for the production of disposable hygiene articles. Maydred’s co-workers encouraged her to think bigger and offered to leverage the company’s network to help. Martin Langley, EMEA Regional Director for Bostik’s Global Hygiene Adhesives business, described Maydred’s efforts to Thomas Hooft at Ontex, an International Producer of Personal Hygiene Products and a customer of Bostik. “I expected a few boxes,” says Martin Langley, “Ontex responded with overwhelming generosity”.Based on their experience, Ontex took care to set aside product they knew would be well-suited to the preferences in this region of the world. Bostik leveraged its global supply chain network, covered the shipping costs, and ensured the delivery would reach its destination. Siamuzwe wrote multiple letters validating the shipment and confirming that the containers would be received in Zambia by the foundation Divine Missions.‘Education and integration constitutes the fundamentals of the Group’s social responsibility actions. Through its Common Ground® program, the Group leads many actions to build strong relationships between the Company and its stakeholders.’ explains Martin Langley,’ we are also engaged in a proactive policy in favor of concrete initiatives intended for women and we are very proud to support them through this initiative.’About Bostik, an Arkema companyBostik is a leading global adhesive specialist in construction, consumer and industrial markets. For more than a century, it has been developing innovative adhesive solutions that are smarter and more adaptive to the forces that shape daily lives. From cradle to grave, from home to office, Bostik’s smart adhesives can be found everywhere. With annual sales of €2 billion, the company employees more than 6,000 people and has a presence in more than 40 countries. www.bostik.com