Celebrating 15 years in India: IKEA Foundation expands its programmes in India
Improved lives of over 100 million children in India out of the 178 million worldwide.
- (1888PressRelease) March 25, 2015 - India : Celebrating the completion of 15 years in India, IKEA Foundation, has strengthened its commitment with previously unannounced grants to partners PRADAN, Aajeevika Bureau, Landesa, Development Alternatives and Ashoka. The expansion is an example of the IKEA Foundation's commitment to working with smaller, local partners as well as larger humanitarian aid organisations improving the lives of children in India.
The announcement came as the Foundation published its 2014 annual review, 178 million smiles, which also revealed that last year alone it gave €104 million in grants and in-kind donations to 40 partners operating in 46 countries. During the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, IKEA Foundation made six new grants to UNICEF, amounting to €24.9 million, boosting its commitment to children.
"Completion of 15 years in India is a very important milestone for us" said Per Heggenes, Chief Executive Officer of the IKEA Foundation. "Our current work grew from IKEA's efforts to fight child labour in its supply chain in India. But, early on in the endeavour, IKEA learned that to prevent child labour it is vital to address the root causes of why children work."
Today, the Foundation's work has ranged from simple but important initiatives, such as providing immunisations or vitamin supplements, to comprehensive programmes supporting entire communities. In India, the IKEA Foundation works with 12 partners on long term programmes that change attitudes towards child labour, provide education and healthcare and empower women so children and families can break the cycle of poverty.
Other highlights from the report show that the Foundation:
• gave €10 million in grants for disaster and emergency relief in 2014, including its biggest-ever emergency donation of €5 million to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to fight Ebola in West Africa
• had helped 1.2 million babies get much-needed specialist care through UNICEF in India by the end of 2014
• supplied 6,000 IKEA toys for UNICEF's Early Childhood Development kits, which were sent to 11 countries in 2014, including Syria, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan
• donated a total of 150,000 IKEA mattresses, quilts and quilt covers to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) for Syrian refugees living in Iraq
PARTNER FUNDING AND PROGRAMME DETAILS
With a grant of €1m, our programmes with Pradan will help 30,000 women from poorer communities learn to diversify their crops, increasing their food harvest by 50% and boosting their family income.
Our grant amount of €1.4m to Landesa will improve the lives of 90,000 rural women and over 300,000 children in Uttar Pradesh by providing women with land titles, land literacy and access to government programmes.
Ashoka is our newest partner with a €2m funding which will help identify 15 Ashoka Fellows and 25 Changemaker Schools. They will work towards transforming education by prioritizing empathy, teamwork, leadership and creativity as essential 21st century skills.
Our funding of €0.5m toAajeevika Bureau will help 12,000 women and adolescent girls organise into support groups in Rajasthan; 10,000 families receive high-quality, low-cost healthcare; and more than 2,000 women and adolescent girls develop better job skills.
Our project with Development Alternatives gets a funding of€8.1m and will help 100,000 women in India develop literacy and math skills.
About the IKEA Foundation
The IKEA Foundation aims to improve opportunities for children and youth in some of the world's poorest communities by funding holistic, long-term programmes that can create substantial, lasting change. The IKEA Foundation works with strong strategic partners applying innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results in four fundamental areas of a child's life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and a sustainable family income. Across the globe, our partners have used our funds to help over 178 million children have a better start in life. Learn more at www.ikeafoundation.org and www.facebook.com/IKEAfoundation
IKEA is a home furnishing business founded in Sweden. The IKEA Foundation is a charitable foundation that oversees IKEA's global philanthropy to improve the lives of children living in extreme poverty.
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