Head and heart

The principles that led PwC to get involved in the 'Educating the children of Darfur' project inform our general approach to investing in education. That approach can best be described by the phrase, "head and heart". We invest in education programmes only in circumstances where we are able to make a sustained commitment, and only when we are confident that our investment will be justified by the value the programme creates.

In the case of the 'Educating the children of Darfur', both of these conditions were met. For example, we understood in detail just how much our dollars could buy—US$100 would pay for a child's lunch for an entire school year, and US$1,000 would pay the annual salaries of two teachers. We also understood that the level of funding we provided could maintain the programme over a three-year period, which we considered the minimum timeframe necessary in order to create a lasting difference in the lives of the refugee children.

Our hard-headed approach to investing in education is balanced by the values and convictions that inspire our people—one of which is the importance of seeing the world through the eyes of the people we serve. Or as we say at PwC, "Put yourself in the other person's shoes". In seeing the world through the eyes of the Darfur refugees, our people instinctively knew that this was a time to open up their hearts. So while our investments in educational initiatives are usually subject to cost / benefit calculations, where our hearts go, our heads often follow.

"PwC's generosity will provide direct assistance to refugee children in Darfur who currently have limited options for education. Working together, UNHCR and PwC are committed to providing these children with safe havens and hope for a better future."
António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees