The Porsche ‘Empowering the Future’ social responsibility initiative began in 2008 with the aim of helping people affected by the Wenchuan earthquake. Porsche contributed to UNICEF’s work in the early recovery period immediately after the earthquake and donated 500,000 euro (equal to CNY 5.4 million) at the very beginning of the project.
In 2009, Porsche, again in conjunction with UNICEF, launched the innovative Mobile Educational Training and Resource Unit programme (METRU) to bring qualified teaching instructors, teaching kits, student packs, library and sports equipment to youth in the remote areas. Since then, the cooperation between UNICEF and Porsche has delivered aid throughout four counties in Sichuan and Gansu Provinces with an initial donation of 10 million RMB and four Cayenne. By March 2012, the programme has benefited over 117,000 students and provided trainings to over 7,800 teachers from 435 schools.
In 2011, Porsche donated two more Cayenne SUVs and contributed a further 4,948,762 RMB fund donation, to expand the reach of the assistance to Yunnan Province. As of date, Porsche China has successfully renewed the METRU programme — from three (2009-2012) to five years (2009-2014), covering three provinces for five years with six Cayenne.
