Merck offices around the world contribute to our communities in many ways:

Children's Inn at NIH - A Place to Call Home

In 1990, Merck made a $3.7 million contribution to build The Children's Inn at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world's premier biomedical research center in Bethesda, Maryland. As a result, for more than a decade sick children under treatment at the NIH have had a place to call home.

Most children who come to the NIH are facing life-threatening illnesses that resist conventional therapy, including heart, lung, blood, bone and growth disorders; forms of cancer; and HIV infection. At the Inn, pediatric patients and their families benefit from a "home away from home" experience rather than staying at a local hotel. Largely funded by private donations, the Inn is designed to keep families together in the midst of crisis, reduce stress and promote emotional well-being, comfort and mutual support.

Since its opening, The Children's Inn has hosted patients and families from all over the US and 57 other nations. More than 1,000 children have stayed at the Inn each year. In April 2002, Dr. Lori Wiener (the Inn's Board President) noted that the Inn had assisted NIH investigators in carrying out complex treatment protocols. "Some of the discoveries and improvements in serious disease could not have happened without this research - and without the Inn."

In 2002, we gave our third half-million dollar matching grant to support the Inn's operation. Our employees have also generously supported to the Inn through personal contributions as part of Merck's Partnership for Giving Program. Most recently, The Merck Company Foundation committed a second grant of $3.7 million to build an 18-room addition to the Inn, which was completed in 2004. The enlarged facility is now able to house 59 families at a time.

Breaking Down Barriers in Italy

MSD Italy and other corporate sponsors are providing support for Cittadinanzattiva, an Italian movement that encourages the public to play an active role in governing society. MSD Italy works with the group's Obiettivo Barriere program, which removes architectural barriers that prevent disabled persons from accessing essential services and public spaces. In 2003, the program eliminated 118 architectural impediments to the disabled across Italy, from removing steps that prevented access to the Church San Francesco di Paola in Naples to improving the entrance to the post office in the northern Italian town of La Spezia. In 2004, the program focused on eliminating barriers that hinder disabled persons from entering sports facilities. The program's efforts have raised public awareness of the issue and prompted the Italian government to institute the first national monitoring system of architectural barriers to public services.

Netherlands 50th Anniversary

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, our MSD branch in The Netherlands, organized a day of community service under the slogan: "Getting Better Together." Approximately 900 MSD Employees - more than 80 percent of our employees in The Netherlands - spent one day during a two-week period lending a helping hand to various charities and community projects in and around the city of Haarlem. MSD employees helped to improve nursing home and day care center gardens, organized day trips for children and elderly groups, and carried out maintenance projects for prominent monuments. The event was well received, leading MSD Holland to decide to organize smaller "Getting Better Together" events twice a year and a larger community effort every five years.

Assessing Needs in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

In collaboration with the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Department and other partners, Merck's West Point, Penn., facility supported an assessment of the health and social services needs of Montgomery County residents. The objective of the project was to pinpoint needs in various areas of the County and evaluate approaches to addressing those needs.

The independent assessment, completed by researchers from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University, was based on personal interviews and focus groups from the five regions within the County. The assessment found three main geographic areas of the County to be the neediest. These are: Pottstown, Norristown and Lansdale. The report’s author also makes recommendations for addressing the immediate needs (1 year), intermediate opportunities (5 years) and long term (20 years) goals for the County.

The immediate priorities are (1) advocacy and management leadership to drive systems improvement; (2) access to services that meet the complex needs of the region’s most vulnerable residents, minorities, the chronically ill and disabled, including early childhood services and health care for the uninsured and underinsured; and (3) infrastructure to support these priorities: affordable housing, fluoridation, information, transportation, and workforce investment. These immediate priorities are also strategic investments aimed at increasing the quality of life, health and equality of opportunity for all of Montgomery County’s residents. The intermediate and long-term opportunities will depend on how well the immediate priorities are addressed.

For more information, click here:
http://www.sbm.temple.edu/crc/health-mont.html