• Novartis organizes annual volunteer event to commemorate the company's creation in 1996
  
• More than 14,500 associates worldwide engage in volunteer activities in their communities
  
• Novartis event emphasizes strong commitment to Corporate Citizenship

• More than 3,800 associates across Switzerland are expected to participate in 215 volunteer projects. In the Basel area, associates are serving in nearly 200 projects, such as taking disabled children to an amusement park and cooking at a battered women's shelter and an orphanage. In Nyon, associates are creating a puppet theater for autistic children, donating blood to the regional Red Cross, and assisting young people facing difficulties. Associates in Cham will be supporting activities at a kindergarten, taking a trip with retirees and doing forestry work.
  
• In China, more than 1,100 associates are participating in weeklong activities. Beijing associates will train elementary school students in emergency rescue skills. Along with giving blood and donating clothing, Suzhou associates are warning people against the danger of consuming expired medication. Associates also organized events to raise interest in chemistry among school children.
  
• Across Germany, 750 Novartis volunteers are involved in more than twenty projects, including outings with disabled children and seniors, a management workshop at a student cafe, and the creation of a playground area for a daycare center and an elementary school. Close to 400 associates in Marburg are organizing a sports fair at a boarding school for disabled children, painting walls in a children's hospital, and planting a "Novartis forest" to make up for the damage caused by Hurricane Kyrill in 2007. Associates in Grosswallstadt will offer storytelling at schools for disabled children and the blind and will create a new hallway designed to serve visually impaired children.
  
• More than 300 associates in Spain are donating blood, entertaining at a children's hospital, donating clothes to support a local charity, and cleaning up a dog shelter and nature park.
  
• In Slovenia, more than 150 associates are organizing games in seniors' homes, landscaping at a trauma rehabilitation institute, donating blood, and preparing lunch for the homeless at a shelter. Associates are also preparing a fairy-tale day at a kindergarten and raising environmental awareness at a school for children and adults with mental disabilities.
  
• In Australia, associates will plant trees in a local national park and carry out renovations for a local community center, including tidying, planting gardens and painting.
  
• Consumer Health associates in Canada will again partner with Community Living Mississauga, a local not-for-profit organization that provides support to individuals with disabilities. Associates will help through painting, spring cleaning, gardening, arts and crafts.

Novartis AG provides healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Focused solely on healthcare, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, preventive vaccines, diagnostic tools, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, and consumer health products. Novartis is the only company with leading positions in these areas. In 2008, the Group's continuing operations achieved net sales of USD 41.5 billion and net income of USD 8.2 billion. Approximately USD 7.2 billion was invested in R&D activities throughout the Group. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 96,700 full-time-equivalent associates and operate in more than 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis

Novartis

Novartis is an innovative medicines company. Every day, we work to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives so that patients, healthcare professionals and societies are empowered in the face of serious disease. Our medicines reach more than 250 million people worldwide.

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