Corporate Responsibility (2): How Sandrine Corman Takes Action

In our Group’s just-published Corporate Responsibility Report 2010/2011, five Bertelsmen and –women talk about how exactly they put Bertelsmann’s corporate culture into practice in their workaday life, and why and how they do so at their company – and often beyond it. We will gradually introduce these colleagues, whose portraits incidentally grace the five different covers the report was published with.

We begin with Sandrine Corman, a presenter on RTL-TVI, RTL Group’s Belgian TV channel in Brussels. She talks about her own personal motivation to get involved in her company’s corporate responsibility efforts.

“I’ve presented the Télévie closing show on RTL-TVI for over ten years now, and it is always a very special experience. My colleagues feel the same way – none of them wants to miss our annual telethon against cancer and leukemia, in children in particular. It gives us the occasion to all work together on one big show – a very special, moving moment that never loses its power. We raise millions of euros in donations and feel that what we do actually helps others. Of course it’s always especially thrilling to see children from the previous year again, though others may have unfortunately succumbed to their illness.

“Besides presenting the show, I also participate in other fundraisers, including classic-car rallies and stage plays – this year I was involved in the three initiatives. For a report, I even had the opportunity to accompany a child with cancer everywhere for a whole day. Maxine is just 2 years old and suffers from a severe form of leukemia. I never cease to be amazed by her courage. Although she is going through very lengthy chemotherapy, she radiates incredible willpower. This was also the first time I had ever spoken at length with the parents of a child who has cancer.

“I suddenly realized how terrible it must be to learn that your own child has the disease. And how difficult such a situation must be for the whole family, in the long-term. That affected me deeply – after all, I have a 4- year-old son myself.”