Goodyear Donates cheque to SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde;

Carlos Cipollitti, general manager of the Goodyear Research Centre in Colmar-Berg (GIC*L), has presented - for the third time - with the Goodyear Associate Engagement Team, a cheque to SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde; the €6,517.96 will go towards the Kankan Community Support Programme in Guinea, which aims to sustainably strengthen the community so that it alone can be concerned about the well-being of its children.

On 15 December during the Christmas holidays, Goodyear Luxembourg organised a ceremony in the presence of the children of the company's employees who in 2017 had participated in a drawing contest on the theme of Goodyear Luxembourg: from the past to the future. While 86 young people had taken part in the competition, 9 children aged 3 to 12 had received a prize from Santa Claus.

At the cheque presentation, Carlos Cipollitti and Josy Blum, production manager of the tyre factory at Goodyear Luxembourg, stressed: "Many children around the world are deprived of their rights to an identity, a family, housing, clothing, adequate food, medical care, education, protection and to be able to participate. We would like to think of them and show solidarity". That's why members of the Associate Engagement Team took the initiative to create a calendar with children's drawings to raise funds for SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde. In addition, a raffle was also organised to support even more concretely the children of Kankan in Guinea, one of the poorest countries of West Africa.

With this fundraising in 2017, Goodyear Luxembourg has been a solidarity partner of SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde for 15 years. In addition to its Christmas activities that have helped children in Niger, Haiti and Guinea for the past three years, the company has also ordered SOS greeting cards. €21,000 was thus allocated to various development programmes, care and emergency assistance.

Expressing her thanks, Sophie Glesener, Director of SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde, said: "We are particularly grateful for the long-term support of Goodyear Luxembourg. Indeed, protecting and caring for children and allowing them to claim their rights is a long-term task that requires trusted partners. We welcome the financial support of our projects but also to be able to inform about the situation of children and their rights. Children are the future and we must do their utmost to ensure that they have the best way to live."​