Stocktaking: Employees Give Nearly €200,000 For Flood Victims In South Asia

Days after the tsunami in  South Asia , Bertelsmann set up a relief fund, immediately stocked it with €1 million and invited employees to make matchable donations. Now the final results are in – and they are impressive indeed: Bertelsmann’s employees donated nearly 200,000 Euro in the weeks and months since the disaster – 200,000 Euro that will now be doubled by Bertelsmann. The urge to help truly reverberated around the world, as the detailed breakdown of donations shows.

Donations came from employees in countries including Mexico, Chile, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain and Japan. All together, the donations came to nearly €200,000. After being doubled by the company, they will bring the relief funds to 1.4 million. The money will be used to finance a new SOS children’s village in Pondicherry, South India, to be built jointly by Bertelsmann and RTL.

RTL Television and Bertelsmann will jointly finance the construction and long-term upkeep of the village. Details are currently being coordinated with SOS Children’s Villages. “We at SOS Children’s Villages appreciate this magnificent sum as a wonderful boost for our work, and would like to express our heartfelt thanks to your company, and especially to its employees, for their extraordinary commitment,” said Ute Kister of the SOS Children’s Villages in a message to all Bertelsmann employees.