DHL launches UPstairs scholarship program for employees and their children in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, has launched the UPstairs scholarship program which provides financial support to the children of DHL employees in the Philippines.

A strong advocate for education, DHL aims to improve educational opportunity for young people and prepare them for the working world by addressing some of the social challenges faced in the Philippines today as competition for quality education remains high. The UPstairs program is one such initiative launched as part of DPDHL’s three core Corporate Responsibility (CR) programs, under the motto “Living Responsibility”. Following the success of the pilot in South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico and Romania, DHL has expanded the program into over 80 countries in 2012. Approximately 112 countries have implemented the UPstairs program this year.

The Philippines has been successfully working to improve the literacy rate, as well as primary and secondary graduation rates by improving access and quality of education. The UPstairs program aims to support this development by helping the families of DHL employees gain access to education institutions as well as pursue higher levels of education. The scholarship is open to the families of employees across DHL’s three business units in the Philippines - DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Supply Chain .

Yati Abdullah, country manager of DHL Express Philippines, said, “We are excited about the launch of this program in the Philippines. We know how important a solid education is for children and we are glad to be able to give back to our hardworking employees and their families. We also hope to show our support for the Philippine government’s call towards advocating better education. All parents want their children to have the best possible start in life and our program aims to help our employees achieve this.”

 â€œThe selection of eligible families is a very important and intricate process. We screen and review each of our candidates to ensure that we identify those who will reap the most benefit from our program,” said Stephen Ly, Managing Director, DHL Global Forwarding Philippines.