News | 12/19/2014

Long-Term Aid for SOS Children’s Villages

Bertelsmann and its employees had donated €1.4 million in 2004, securing a future for 250 children

On December 26, 2004 a tsunami devastated the coasts of nine Asian countries. A total of 230,000 people lost their lives, and many children lost their parents and relatives, or they could no longer remain with their families after the disaster. 250 of them found refuge in SOS Children's Villages – thanks to Bertelsmann and its employees. At the time, they had raised and donated the impressive sum of €1.4 million for the tsunami victims.

Within days after the tsunami struck, Bertelsmann had pledged €1 million to SOS Children's Villages. A subsequent fundraiser among employees in Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Austria added another €200,000. The company then matched this amount again. In all, €1.4 million were deposited the relief fund Bertelsmann had set up.

The money was to go primarily to providing long-term support for the affected children, because soon after the disaster there was plenty money for emergency aid thanks to the world’s willingness to help, but only little for long-term support. Bertelsmann therefore to provide long-term aid to a total of 250 children over a period of at least ten years with an SOS Children's Villages sponsorship. So the company and its employees played a big role in ensuring food, clothing, medical care and education for these children in the past decade.

"Ten years ago, we deliberately opted to provide long-term support for the children affected by the tsunami. Now we see that this was the right approach,” says Karin Schlautmann, Head of Bertelsmann Corporate Communications. “While other events have long since erased the tsunami victims from public consciousness, 250 children in India, Thailand and Indonesia still benefit every day from the compassion and generosity of Bertelsmann, its companies and its employees.” Support of these children continues to this day: thanks to a circumspect management and investment of the donation, the sponsorships are secure for the years ahead as well.

"Bertelsmann has given sustainable and lasting help to many abandoned and orphaned children whose lives were drastically affected by the devastating tsunami disaster ten years ago," says Sabine Fuchs, Director of SOS Children's Villages in Germany, thanking the company and its employees for their support. "In the SOS Children's Villages you funded, children in need still draw new strength each day for a life of opportunity and independence.”