“You raise me up, so I can stand on my own. ” No, this is not the lyrics from Josh Groban’s popular song “You raise me up”. But the voice of a 12 year old girl reciting her winning essay from a wheel chair at “Laws of Life” book launch at the Intel Chengdu factory. She is from one of the 200 iWorld schools hit by the deadly earthquake in Sichuan May 12, 2008.

Just ten days after the earthquake, Intel launched a comprehensive post-quake recovery plan called “iWorld” (in Chinese, “i” means love–iWorld means “spread love around the world”) to restore school services in the areas leveraging Intel’s technology expertise and competencies. Intel and the Intel Foundation made $5 million financial grant for the schools and iWorld project, and our employees led the effort to equip 200 e-classrooms, lining up the other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other companies in the region, providing Intel® Teach and Intel® Learn Programs to 200 schools. Our 3000 employees have contributed 50K hours to affected schools, including school selection, e-classroom set-up, and roll-out of mentoring, teaching, and on-line programs to connect employees with the students.

Earlier this year, Intel launched “Laws of Life” campaign with Junior Achievement, an international NGO. Laws of Life are a person’s positive value toward our life, the code of conduct and our pursuit of dreams. Our 1300 employees have reached around 100 iWorld schools to share our values and laws of life. Each student is encouraged to discover, understand and practice these values in their daily life. They are then encouraged to write an essay about their own learnings. The top 103 essays out of 100000 essays are now being compiled into a book being launched.

Only days earlier, our CEO Paul Otellini took a whirlwind visit to the site and recognized our top 100 “Laws of Life” volunteers.

For Intel, CSR means what we can make possible. While we strive to inspire tomorrow’s innovation through education, to build a stronger community and create a more sustainable future through technology, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is our employees who are making it possible, people who live and breathe Intel values and culture.

I am really proud to be part of the team!