20
December
2006
|
08:02
Europe/Berlin

Fund raising campaign after the tsunami disaster

In the weeks after the tsunami disaster of December 2004, the staff of the Kuehne + Nagel Group and the company contributed roughly equal shares of a donation amounting to 550,000 Swiss francs. Besides various smaller projects, the large part of the money has now gone towards the construction of an SOS Children’s Village in Banda Aceh and will thus benefit a sustainable reconstruction project in the part of Indonesia most severely affected by the tidal wave.

 

Under a partnership agreement signed with the foundation Schweizer Freunde der SOS-Kinderdörfer (Swiss Friends of the SOS Children's Villages), Kuehne + Nagel is meeting the costs of building and equipping a kindergarten and one of the 15 family houses in the village which will provide a home for approximately 150 children. The construction work will be completed in April 2007; both buildings will bear the name of the sponsor, Kuehne + Nagel.

"With the support for the SOS Children's Village in Banda Aceh, we are sure that we are making a long-term, sustainable contribution to the reconstruction of the region", said Klaus-Michael Kuehne, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, who initiated the fund raising campaign.

According to official estimates, in the Aceh region some 30,000 orphaned children are still living in provisional housing. "The aim here is to enable the children to grow up in a protective framework that cares for their mental and physical well-being", said Christine Leimgruber, Managing Director of the non-profit Swiss foundation Schweizer Freunde der SOS-Kinderdörfer. On behalf of the many children who will find a new home at the SOS Children's Village, we would like to express our gratitude for this generous donation from Kuehne + Nagel.