Credit: SOSVEM

Société Générale Luxembourg has donated €20,000 to Luxembourg NGO SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde.

SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde has just received its first cheque in person in the post-confinement period during a meeting with Société Générale Luxembourg at its premises in Luxembourg City. The cheque presentation took place in the presence of Arnaud Jacquemin, CEO of Société Générale Luxembourg, Tonika Hirdman, Managing Director of the Fondation de Luxembourg, and Sophie Glesener, Director of SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde.

On this occasion, Société Générale Luxembourg donated €20,000 to the NGO through the Fondation COVID-19, created recently under the aegis of the Fondation de Luxembourg. This sum will be allocated to the four development programmes managed by that SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde in Guinea. These programmes have been adapted to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with the objective of mitigating the repercussions of the crisis on the NGO's beneficiaries and continuing the activities undertaken.

SOS Director Sophie Glesener took this opportunity to express her gratitude to the Fondation de Luxembourg for its long-standing support, as well as to Société Générale Luxembourg for its first donation in favour of SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde for communities which face a multiple crisis. Sophie Glesener explained: “In this period of great uncertainty and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the African continent, this surge of generosity is a fine testimony to the solidarity that must unite us. This important contribution will enable our partners in Guinea to support vulnerable families so that they can get up as quickly as possible and provide for the needs of their children whose lives are turned upside down".

Since 2017, SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde has been managing four community support programmes for the protection of children in Conakry, Kankan, Labé and N’Zérékoré for 780 families and 3,200 children. From the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, partners on the ground implemented measures (awareness-raising, distribution of hygiene kits, etc.) to protect teams, families and communities by preventing the spread of the virus and strengthen the economic situation of families who have often had to interrupt their daily activities. In addition, specific activities, involving community organisations, have been planned to strengthen the protection of children whose vulnerability has increased. In the longer term, other activities are developing to strengthen the resilience of these communities.