Here at Bounce Rubber Bands® we are big believers in the concept of the “triple bottom line” in which consideration of our business operations is given to people, planet and profit. Bounce Rubber Bands is an Australian owned and operated company but due to the sheer fact that we are unable to source natural rubber here on Australian soil, we source our rubber from Thailand where it is commercially produced in plantations. Bounce Rubber Bands® has partnered with Thailand manufacturers where we have created an eco-friendly and sustainable product under agreements that work towards protecting our planet. (You can read more about how our Rubber Bands are made here). Bounce Rubber Bands is immensely thankful for the two countries that have helped make our business prosper and grow and this is why we were proud to launch our corporate social responsibility initiative “Bounce Back” which saw 2.5c of each bag sold in the 2016/2017 financial year to two charities/associations – Borderless Friendships WA and Rotary Australia.
Borderless Friendship WA Inc (BFWA) is a not-for-profit Australian organisation that enhances the lives of hill tribe children in Northern Thailand. The hill tribe people live in remote areas scattered across Northern Thailand with little or no access to education. This lack of education makes the hill tribe children prone to poverty and vulnerable to exploitation within Thailand’s ubiquitous sex and drug trade. Those children who can get an education grow up able to take much better care of themselves, their families and their community (Source: UN). Borderless Friendships WA support more than 450 ‘at risk’ children and most of these children have no parents or family to support them.
We are happy to announce that we recently received feedback from Borderless Friendships WA notifying us of the impact of our corporate social responsibility donation in a remote village in Thailand. Our contribution has been used in the rebuild of a toilet block that was destroyed last year in an earthquake. The Doi Vieng community is a remote Northern Thailand village in which the main source of income comes from a nearby coffee plantation –Borderless Friendships WA hopes that coffee will be this village way out of poverty. In January 2018 the team from BFWA drove the hour drive to the mountain village along windy dirt roads, river crossing and bamboo bridges to celebrate the end of the project with the children in the community and those parents who were not busy working in the coffee plantation.
We are extremely pleased that our contribution has gone towards such an important and necessary project in Thailand. By purchasing Bounce Rubber Bands® at your local retailer, wholesaler or reseller you are helping us provide support to these amazing projects through our corporate social responsibility initiative ‘Bounce Back’. So, a big THANK YOU is in order to everyone who supported our business throughout the last financial year. We look forward to seeing how the 2017/2018 contribution will help better the lives of the hill tribe children and communities in Thailand.
If you would like to know further information about Borderless Friendships WA you can do so here . It has been brought to our attention here at Bounce Rubber Bands that many children in similar poor villages are in need of sponsors, and any assistance with sponsorship is most appreciated by Borderless Friendships WA. The Red Lahu village, for example, is an extremely poor village with a range of complex issues. Few parents and grandparents have a Thai ID so their employment options are limited. Education can break this cycle of poverty! If you are able to support one or more of the hill tribe children directly by becoming a valued sponsor, please email: info-wa@borderlessfriendship.org.