ESPRIT 

Within the framework of an international press conference on the occasion of the “68/08 Summer Celebration“ of Esprit’s 40th anniversary, Thomas Marschall of SOS Children’s Villages International and Heinz Krogner, Chairman and CEO of Esprit, announced their cooperation: the construction of a SOS Children’s Village in Alibaug, to the south of Mumbai.  According to the aim of the project, this children’s village is to also have a widespread impact on the vicinity and thus be a positive influence for the whole region.

As the construction work for the village could not be started until after the heavy October monsoon rains, Esprit found additional opportunities for involvement in the interim.  Substantial assistance was provided to SOS Neighborhood Support in the area of Delhi. There, support was provided to six family programs, these reaching and strengthening 10,000 people in the area of the surrounding villages. The goal of these SOS programs is to assist families to stay together in the face of threats from severe poverty, social deprivation and breakdown. The participating families emerge from the programs stronger than before and are thus able to provide their children with a secure and loving home for the present and for the future. The long-term partnership, based on the above mentioned projects, provides a new dimension. “The partnership with Esprit is characterized by the especially wholehearted and sizable commitment by a partner who really wants to make a difference with joint projects.” says Thomas Marschall, SOS Children’s Villages International.

“Success requires responsibility.  It is important for us to give something back to people.” – This is how the company Esprit describes their motivation regarding cooperation with SOS.
From 2010 onwards, 14 family houses in the new SOS Children’s Village will provide new homes for more than 140 children. The first children are to move in starting April 2010, and further children will follow in the course of the following months. The village will have its own nursery school with enough room for a total of 60 children from the village and the surrounding vicinity, as well as a social center. This will be the home base of the family strengthening programs directed at families in the area: more than 500 women and their children will in the future find counsel, support, training and medical help. Current and regularly updated information regarding the project’s progress is also available at http://www.esprit.com/sos.