Kimberly Clark Vietnam has given 300 scholarships to poor secondary schoolgirls nationwide who excel in their studies, under its charitable Kotex Fund programme, Kimberly Clark general director Dhamcharee Varaporn said.

Last week, the first 18 female pupils from Hanoi were selected to receive scholarships each worth VND1 million. The company has handed out 3,800 grants worth VND5.5 billion in total since it set up the fund five years ago.

Kimberly Clark has been praised by President Nguyen Minh Triet and awarded a medal by the Ministry of Education and Training for its contributions to education in the country. They include charitable and social events such as the Helmets for Kids Programme in cooperation with the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, the Kotex – a Friend for Vietnamese Women programme and sex education classes for teenagers in 798 secondary schools across the nation from October to November 2007.

According to the Kimberly Clark general director, one of the company’s most recent ventures was the establishment of a Community Outreach Foundation to help those in need.