Montblanc Pens partners with UNICEF

Maison reaffirms its support of child literacy and education with a limited edition collection supporting UNICEF’s work around the world focused on overcoming the issue of the 1 in 11 primary school-age children who continue to be denied the right to education.


As the physical manifestation of the spoken language, the written word is one of the core pillars of human civilization. With its foundations in the culture of writing, it is Montblanc’s belief that the written word is a precious gift that should be bestowed on every human being. However, while education is widely recognized as a fundamental human right, of the 650 million primary school age children, approximately 59 million are out of school. Furthermore, another 92 million children do not reach fourth grade and, of those that do, 130 million still have not learned the basics of reading and numeracy.

Understanding that education and words have the power to change the world by helping to break generational cycles of poverty and disease, Montblanc has been collaborating with UNICEF over the past 13 years, raising over $10 million dollars that have benefitted education programs around the world. Just like UNICEF, Montblanc is committed to helping all children regardless of gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background, realize their right to equitable and inclusive quality education.


The new launch of the Montblanc for UNICEF collection of limited edition writing instruments, timepieces, accessories and leather goods is the latest chapter in the story of this special partnership that has helped thousands of children find their way to a quality education, and a brighter future.

Diversity of world languages as design inspiration
To highlight the universal nature of writing, the diversity of world languages is represented in the design of the new collection by six handwritten characters. Each one of the characters is the first letter from six different alphabets that children learn to write first, including Roman, Hindi, Arabic and three Asian characters. Each item from the Writing Is A Gift Collection sold between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 raises the amount that will be donated towards providing more children access to primary education of a better quality.

Montblanc, through its partnership with UNICEF, aims to help improve learning for over 5 million children. While more children are going to schools, millions of students still do not learn the basics. UNICEF advocates and programs for quality education and improved learning outcomes in countries around the world. The funds raised by the initiative will help UNICEF to support national education quality standards that cover pedagogy, reading, and writing, the learning environment, community involvement, infrastructure and measuring of learning outcomes. In addition, funds will go towards teacher training programs, as well as guidance and tools to ensure teachers have the knowledge necessary to deliver quality education to students.