Aviva, HSBC & Tesco team to back Street Children day

Financial institutions are not well known for working in partnership but this year global insurance brand Aviva has teamed with HSBC, together with supermarket giant Tesco, to back International Day for Street Children. 

 

The day was celebrated in over 130 countries for the third year running, reflecting the existence of street children as a global issue.

 

Aviva’s participation comes as part of its global Street to School programme which supports street children projects in the UK and in 27 other countries around the world. 

 

David Schofield, head of corporate responsibility, Aviva, told Ethical Performance: “While it is easy to picture street children in the developing world, it is relevant to all the markets in which we operate. In the UK, for example, one child runs away every five minutes. It’s a startling statistic.” 

 

In conjunction with the day, Aviva highlighted its most recent CR achievement, a piece of research called Passport 2012. Last year, Aviva commissioned the study at a global level to explore the opinions and experiences of young people who receive services supported by ‘Street to School’, in order to evaluate the programme’s effectiveness. 

 

“As an impact measurement tool, it has given us some fascinating insights,” said Schofield. “We’ve started conversations that many in CSR don’t really want to have. As a result we’ve shifted some of our metrics to qualitative ones, revisited our definitions and simplified our datasets. We’ll be looking to disseminate Passport results into toolkits for NGOs.”