Scientia et Educatio Naturam Sanitatemque Emuniunt
Science and Education Preserve Nature and Health
La Science et l'Éducation Préservent la Nature et la Santé
Projects Supported
2019 - 2021
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2021
Since 1978, Le Bateau ivre - Maison d’accueil ASBL has been welcoming children and teenagers who have encountered serious difficulties in their family environments. This small shelter offers a welcoming environment to boys and girls between 18 months and 18 years old, where the key values of attention, respect and support are shared by the children, the pedagogical team and the volunteers. In the home, the children can find the serenity and strength to try and rebuild their lives. The team also works with the families so that they can maintain a relationship with their child, preparing, if and when possible, for their return to the family. When this is not possible, the Bateau ivre team accompanies the young person until they come of age, before helping them settle into adult life. In this warm and welcoming home, a strong focus is put on the children’s health and education, the main assets that will allow them to succeed in life. In 2019, thanks to a SENSE Foundation Brussels grant, the organisation built its own playground, complying with safety standards, and offered children a holiday in the Belgian countryside. In 2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Le Bateau ivre to achieve one of its biggest goals: acquiring its own facilities in Brussels so the older children can live in semi-autonomy after they leave the home. http://www.lamaisondaccueil.be
Project country: DRC
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
The Centre KASALA is a non-profit organisation providing medical, psychological and social support in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This centre contributes to sustainable development and the fight against poverty in the region, by supporting school projects through holistic interventions. In 2020/2021, thanks to the support of SENSE Foundation Brussels, the Centre KASALA provided water to the SAIO primary school, allowing the school’s 1,200 students to have access to drinking water at school. In addition, the project supported students with psychosocial and socioeconomic difficulties so they can stay in school and keep learning, thanks to the support of psychologists and volunteer social workers. https://www.pmscentrekasala.com/
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
Ecole Hôpital et Domicile (EHD) brings together and supervises approximately 450 volunteer teachers who are ready to help sick children to continue their schooling despite being away from school. With the support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, volunteers go to the hospital or to the young person's home, free of charge for the families. In 2020/2021, thanks to a SENSE Foundation Brussels grant, EHD was able to help more children to stay up-to-date with their schoolwork and to maintain their cognitive skills. Furthermore, it allowed these children and their families to think of something other than their illness. https://www.ehd.be/
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
A non-profit social enterprise, La Ferme de Froidmont Insertion tackles the challenges of training and work, environmental protection and energy-efficient housing. Each year, 30 adults are trained to become kitchen assistants or organic gardeners. In order to meet Belgian demand, a dozen more market gardeners need to be trained. This will enable the organisation to self-finance the training in the long term. In 2020/2021, the support of SENSE Foundation Brussels allowed for the installation of a third greenhouse and its irrigation, making it possible to grow and train there every year from February to December. Especially in 2021, when the crops were impacted by the July floods, the greenhouse protected a significant part of the production from diseases and allowed the trainees to train under cover. Working from garden to plate, all production goes to restaurants, markets and vegetable boxes. Unsold produce is processed for use in the restaurant. The employment rate was 90% in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, 22,000 hours of actual training were completed. https://froidmontinsertion.be/
.jpg){kind=logo}
Project country: France
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
AgroParisTech is a higher education and research institute (“Grande Ecole”) which aims to address some of the main global challenges of the 21st century: feeding a growing population while sustainably managing territories, preserving natural resources, supporting innovation and integrating the bioeconomy. The AgroParisTech Foundation puts the work of AgroParisTech into practice. The Foundation brings a financial and educational sponsorship to projects through three programs: Apprendre! S’Engager! Entreprendre! In 2019/2020, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the Learners' program (Apprendre) through 2 grants for international students from Brazil, 2 mobility grants for French government grant holders, as well as 4 emergency grants, which aimed to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://fondation.agroparistech.fr
Project country: France
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
CentraleSupélec, a public institution specialising in scientific, cultural and professional studies, was created by the merging of École Centrale Paris and Supélec in January 2015. Today, CentraleSupélec consists of 3 campuses in France. It has 4,300 students, 3,200 of which are engineering students, and includes 16 laboratories or research teams. CentraleSupélec is a reference centre in the field of engineering sciences and systems and a leading school in higher education and research, ranked among the best institutions in the world. CentraleSupélec is a founding member of Paris-Saclay University and chairs the École Centrale Group. Since 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels funds 2 Sebastienne Guyot grants, which support female students in their engineering degrees at CentraleSupelec. They target motivated candidates facing financial difficulties and provide them with the best conditions possible to succeed in their studies. https://www.fondation-centralesupelec.fr
Project country: Lebanon
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
Hopital Libanais Geitaoui - University Medical Centre, one of the first hospitals in Lebanon, is a multidisciplinary care hospital, with a mission to treat all patients regardless of race, class or creed. The SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the Hopital Libanais Geitaoui to face difficulties encountered following the explosion of August 4, 2020 at the port of Beirut. Just 1.3 km away from the blast location, this hospital was one of the worst affected by the explosion. SENSE Foundation Brussel’s support helped with the overall operations of taking care of the wounded, cleaning the site and purchasing emergency equipment. https://www.hopital-libanais.com
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
Jeunesses Scientifiques’s objective is to inspire young people with an interest in science and the world around them. The organisation contributes to the training and scientific culture of tomorrow’s adults by giving them the means to be active and informed citizens. The association is open for everyone to participate, regardless of their financial resources or difficulties. The activities are inclusive, from a social and gender perspective, thus participating in the fight against prejudice and social exclusion. In 2020/2021, with the support of SENSE Brussels Foundation, the "Classes de dépaysement" offered schools with limited financial resources the possibility to enrol their pupils in a community-life project including scientific activities, for a maximum duration of 5 days. Fifty children were able to take part in these "change of scenery" classes, suddenly making science fun and hands-on. Activities were organised around the following themes: introduction to programming and Arduino, notions of infinitely large and infinitely small, animal tracks, identification and collection of green materials for plant crafts, what is sound, how do animals see and what do they see, introduction to magnetism and electrical circuits, the impact of humans on their environment, how to make electric batteries with coins, how to use flint. These activities allowed teachers to tackle scientific subjects that they usually think are out of their reach. It was formative for the teachers, who were involved in the project from its inception. https://www.jsb.be
Project country: Uganda
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
Lively Minds is an NGO working towards getting rural pre-schoolers in Ghana and Uganda "school-ready". The first six years of a child’s life are vital in developing the skills needed to succeed in school and in future life. But rural children in Uganda do not get the care and education they need to build those skills, and this adverse start has knock-on effects throughout their lives. During the COVID-19-related school closures, the Lively Minds beneficiaries in rural communities were at risk of becoming ever more isolated, without the support to deliver early childhood care and education for children in their most crucial development years. The organisation created a radio show, Lively Minds Together (LMT), for rural parents across the Busoga region (Uganda), supporting them to deliver effective ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) at home. The parenting episodes teach practical and cost-free ways to provide nurturing care at home. Topics have included handwashing, disability, nutrition, and communication. In the weekly play episodes, parents learn cost-free and straightforward educational games to play with their children at home. In 2020/2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support enabled Lively Minds to develop 32 brand new radio episodes and to broadcast 156 episodes, including 32 live phone-in sessions, reaching a total of 400,000 households in 2021. Here is what some listeners said about the programme: “It’s very good for us to teach our children equal roles, regardless of their gender. This brightens their future”. “I have learned with my children that disability is not inability. We should treat individuals with disabilities as fellow humans without discriminating against them”. https://www.livelyminds.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
Since 1919, La Lumière’s mission has been to provide social and medical training to visually impaired or blind people, enable them to find autonomy, social inclusion and active citizenship. The association welcomes, listens to and accompanies its beneficiaries, helping them to fulfil their life goals through both individual and collective solutions. All their actions aim to empower blind and visually impaired people of all ages. La Lumière gathers a whole team of professionals and provides all the technical aids available today, as well as organising cultural activities. For La Lumière, it is crucial that the visually impaired can access ordinary schooling and education, employment and autonomy, ultimately finding inclusion and happiness. In 2019, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported La Lumière with the digitisation of their library in braille and with audio support, thus promoting a wider access to culture for people who are blind and visually impaired and/or have a disability that hinders their access to reading. https://www.lalumiere.be
Project country: Baltic Sea
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
The MARE Foundation protects marine ecosystems through social and political changes, promotes the sustainable use of the coastal and marine resources and raises public awareness on environmental matters. It carries out projects on sustainable fisheries, shipwreck management, and marine litter as well as other topics related to the marine environment, education and raising society's environmental awareness. In 2020/2021, with SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support, the MARE Foundation worked to reduce the possibility of an ecological disaster in the Gdansk Bay through the preparation of an environmentally safe oil recovery plan for the Franken shipwreck. The Franken, which may still contain up to 1.5 million litres of oil, is considered to pose the biggest ecological threat in the region and was thus chosen as a model case for this pilot project. The support from the SENSE Foundation Brussels was used by the MARE Foundation to: - Publish the general methodology of oil removal operations from shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea, forming the basis of a Wreck Management Programme in Poland; - Organise the project’s closing conference online, during which the methodology was presented to a number of international experts; - Organise advocacy meetings to increase the stakeholders’ knowledge about the issue of potentially dangerous shipwrecks in the Baltic. One of the most important results of the project was the audit carried out by the Supreme Audit Office in Poland. https://fundacjamare.pl
Photo: © Michal Czerminski
Project country: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, DRC
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
For many hospitals in Africa, offering quality healthcare is a major challenge. There are various reasons for this: lack of facilities, limited training opportunities, a restrict supply of medicines, and more. But everyone should have the right to quality healthcare. This is why Medics Without Vacation, a Belgian NGO, is entering into sustainable partnerships with 37 hospitals in five African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. Medics Without Vacation assist their partner hospitals in the long term, so that they can offer high-quality healthcare to their patients. The SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the procurement of medical equipment, following an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the region in August 2019. The organisation was able to purchase and use 50 thermometers to quickly detect fever outbreaks, 56 large parasols and tents to shelter infected patients, including at the Kavumu airport and at border checkpoints, as well as 50 handwashing devices. These devices have been set up in public areas like open air markets to encourage hand washing among the local population. This equipment has also proved useful in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in the region in 2020. https://azv.be
Project country: France
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
The non-profit organisation La Mie de Pain supports the most vulnerable people in Paris and the surrounding area, through a day centre, an accommodation centre for men, two accommodation centres for women, a hostel for youth workers, a boarding house, social housing and work reintegration projects. The support of SENSE Foundation Brussels is directed towards the health centre, ensuring a medical presence within the refuge, and making it possible to refer people in precarious situations to existing official healthcare structures. SENSE Foundation Brussels also supports the project L’Arche d´Avenir, Paris’s largest day centre. L’Arche d’Avenir offers physical activities to homeless and isolated women. Mixed and female-only workshops are offered to promote physical and mental health, through a comprehensive approach. https://www.miedepain.asso.fr
Project country: DRC
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
Oeuvre de Suivi, Education et Protection des Enfants de Rue (OSEPER) assists more than 2,660 children and young people in the streets of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its ambulances, and welcomes more than 300 of them in day centres and temporary accommodation centres. Its main objective is the familial and social reintegration of these street children and young people. In 2020/2021, with SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support, OSEPER awakened the artistic and sporting talents of homeless children and young people. They introduced 170 young people to sociocultural and artistic activities, as well as to computer skills. Through the discovery of three cultural traditions, 57 young people were trained in dancing and singing, 33 in percussions and other traditional local musical instruments, 44 in theatre, 36 in drawing and painting. Two shows allowed the children to present their skills in traditional dance, percussion, and theatre. The children's drawings were also on display. In each activity, some children were singled out and joined training courses or semi-professional troupes thanks to their trainers. Ninety-four children and young people were introduced to computers. Materials were purchased: different outfits representing the tribes the participants discovered, corresponding musical instruments, scenery and props for the theatre, as well as supplies for the drawing activities and sports equipment. A swing was also recently added to the playground. https://oseper.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
Re-source Center is the first comprehensive support centre for cancer patients and their loved ones in the Brussels Region. The centre offers a warm space where they can be listened to and receive psychological support. Through a broad program of activities complementing conventional oncology care, the association encourages the patient to become an active participant in their own healing process. This support, inspired by the principles of integrative medicine, revolves around 4 main pillars: Being, Moving, Eating, Sharing. In 2019, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Re-source in the refurbishment of its holistic support centre in Brussels. https://www.re-source-delta.be
Project country: Global
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
The Rural Water Supply Network is a global network of more than 12,000 rural water professionals from 169 countries and 90 organisations. It facilitates access to the information needed by professionals to provide a sustainable and reliable water supply. The network’s objective is to provide sufficient, affordable and safe water within a reasonable distance of rural homes so that everyone, everywhere, can live a dignified and healthy life. In 2020/2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support enabled the RWSN Secretariat to conduct another cycle of the RWSN Mentoring Programme, matching mentors and mentees from around the world to help young professionals to develop their careers in the water sector and focus on two aspects: the inclusion of women and the use of the PushFar platform. This mentoring cycle focused on including women of all ages in the "mentee" category, following feedback received from numerous women who had wanted to take part in the mentoring programme but did not fit the "young professional" category. Currently, 54% of the mentees are female. Some of the concrete outcomes mentioned by the mentees include enrolling in a PhD programme, improving their CVs and motivation letters for job applications, pushing their careers further, gaining confidence, and developing their professional networks. The programme has also added value to the mentors, who mentioned having been able to improve their mentoring skills, exchange experiences, and refresh their skills and knowledge through the RWSN Mentoring Programme. In addition, and for the first time, the Rural Water Supply Network used the online mentoring platform PushFar. This platform helped improve the quality of the mentoring relationship for all parties: 100% of the mentees thought they were a good or quite a good match for their mentors, an improvement from 2020, where 83% of mentees had been satisfied with their mentors. The mid-year assessment survey conducted by RWSN also showed that 100% of the respondents were satisfied or quite satisfied with their mentoring relationship and their participation in the mentoring programme, in contrast to 89% in 2020. https://www.rural-water-supply.net
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
SOS Children’s Villages works to protect and care for children who have lost parental care, or who stand at risk of losing it. They believe that every child has the right to quality care, and a safe and caring environment for the child to grow and reach their full potential. An estimated 220 million of the world’s children are growing up without adequate parental care. This mean they lost so much: not just having people around, but being listened to, having a supportive community and friends, feeling connected, and knowing that you have someone who cares for you. To support them, SOS Children’s Villages provides holistic support and high-quality services in 136 countries and territories, including in Belgium. In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the CREA-CULTURE Project, aiming to strengthen the physical, social and mental capacities of 52 children, through sporting, artistic and cultural activities. The grant helped cover the children’ subscription fees to sports clubs and cultural academies, the procurement of the necessary equipment and the transportation costs. https://www.sos-villages-enfants.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
SunChild is a nonprofit organisation which helps financially disadvantaged families who have a seriously ill child. SunChild has established partnerships with hospitals and medical institutions in Belgium which refer appropriate families in need of support. Keeping in regular contact with social workers, SunChild's mission is to meet the needs of vulnerable families living in Belgium. In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the association to cover the costs of transporting up to 50 children to health care facilities, as well as art therapy workshops and volunteers' trainings. https://www.sunchild.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
TADA is a 100% bilingual (NL/FR) non-profit organisation that offers weekend classes to children aged 10 to 14, living in Brussels' most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The objectives of TADA are to help these children improve their prospects and open up to new opportunities, to acquire self-confidence, life skills, and a sense of belonging within Belgian society. In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels’ support helped TADA open 2 new weekend schools, one in Molenbeek and one in Schaerbeek, thus reaching and coaching 122 new children in the TADA’s network. The grant also helped TADA in its work to prevent young people from dropping out of school: among the young people supported, 9 out of 10 continue in their education and show clear progress in their development and learning. This is much better than the average estimated in various studies of their peers in similar socio-economic circumstances. https://www.tada.network
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
TAJO is a non-profit organisation offering hundreds of disadvantaged young people in Ghent, Belgium, a three-year journey of Saturday experience workshops. TAJO aims to broaden their participants’ networks and help them acquire self-knowledge, confidence and resilience. Guest lecturers teach engaging workshops in a broad range of disciplines such as healthcare, law, nutrition, safety, STEM, entrepreneurship, and culture. In 2020/2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels provided TAJO with funding to extend access to the organisation's activities to two additional underprivileged neighbourhoods, allowing the NGO to reach out to more motivated young people. TAJO currently works with 195 young people in 3 districts in Ghent. Three other groups started in October 2021, engaging 85 more young people through 96 experiential workshops, thanks to 96 new professionals joining the TAJO network. 11% of pupils do not obtain a secondary education diploma in Flanders. In Ghent, the most recent figures show that 19.9% of young people do not get a secondary education diploma, which influences these pupils' later professional opportunities and income (source: Flemish government, 2020). With this project, TAJO is adding value to the youth and their families. The annual impact meeting in collaboration with the Department of Educational Sciences of Ghent University shows that TAJO is fulfilling its ambition. https://tajo.be
Project country: Latin America
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
TECHO brings together young volunteers and families living in poverty to transform slums into thriving communities across Latin America. To date, TECHO has built more than 150,000 emergency homes for families in need, engaging 1.5 million volunteers in its construction efforts. To respond to COVID-19's impact, TECHO has launched the Empathy Pact, a global movement to support vulnerable families affected by the pandemic via the distribution of emergency kits. SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support to the Empathy Pact is helping scale the distribution of emergency kits to vulnerable families throughout Latin America, allowing these families to find new job opportunities without having to worry about basic needs such as food and hygiene. https://us.techo.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2020
With 31,000 students, the UCLouvain is the largest university in French-speaking Belgium and ranks in the top 15% of universities worldwide. Its 21 research institutes, 38 technology platforms, two university hospitals and three science parks home almost 300 companies and are a testament to its research prowess. UCLouvain contributes cutting-edge research and innovation in collaboration with both the corporate world and broader society. In 2019/2020, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported staff at the Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology. SENSE Foundation Brussels also provided the UCL with emergency grants for students facing hardship, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://uclouvain.be
Project country: United Kingdom
Grant period: 2019 - 2021
The University of Oxford is one of the world’s leading universities and is internationally renowned for the quality of its research and teaching in Medical Sciences and Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Materials Science. Academics undertake both fundamental research and cutting-edge applied work. Research conducted at Oxford tackles major societal and technological challenges. The university also holds the Athena Swan Awards, illustrating its commitment to ensuring good practices to encourage gender diversity in science at all levels. Oxford’s Medical Science researchers work across the full range of biomedical and clinical sciences, seeking to drive forward research into both basic science and translational medicine. Through close collaboration with the UK National Health Service, researchers seek to develop clinical solutions to urgent healthcare needs such as improved cancer treatment. Oxford’s researchers in Chemistry, Materials Science, and Biological Sciences are known for their excellence and expertise across a wide range of innovative areas, from addressing antibiotic resistance to understanding plant pathogens, to drug discovery and nanochemistry. SENSE Foundation Brussels has renewed its support to Oxford University by providing Mobility Awards and hardship funds for students enrolled in the Division of Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences and in the Division of Medical Sciences. https://www.ox.ac.uk
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
The Urban Ecology Centre aims to increase Brussels's food resilience by boosting its social innovations and facilitating complex partnerships with diverse stakeholders through transformative projects, including soil decontamination, the circularisation of urban green waste, and participatory fruit tree planting. The centre also aims to provide education through debates, radio broadcasts, guided botanical walks, etc. In 2020/2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels provided funds to the Citizen Nursery (Pépinière Citoyenne), a participatory project aiming to (re)connect Brussels's inhabitants with fruit trees. As well as the widespread planting of fruit trees in Brussels, the project also provided training to manage fruit trees and shrubs. The benefits of the project are visible at various levels: it provides individuals with a stronger social dimension, knowledge sharing and a close connection with nature, which is known to improve well-being and mental health. On a more general level, the project supports the conservation of old varieties of fruit trees as part of the society's cultural heritage. It also contributes to creating a more edible city. From an environmental point of view, the project promotes the city's biodiversity, the landscape quality and the aesthetics of public space while contributing to reducing urban heat islands. The Good Food strategy, which the Citizen Nursery project is a part of, has made it possible to launch a dynamic transition of the food system in the Brussels Region towards more sustainability. From 2022, the Good Food 2.0 strategy will be anchored in a systemic, territorial, metropolitan, social, resilient and decompartmentalised vision. https://urban-ecology.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
La Vie-là is the "patient house" open to all cancer patients treated at the Clinique Saint-Pierre in Ottignies, Belgium, and at nearby hospitals. This house of recovery provides comprehensive care according to the principle of integrative medicine. In 2020/2021, SENSE Foundation Brussels’s grant supported La Vie-là’s work to improve the patients’ quality of life by reducing stress, depression and chronic pain and by improving their tolerance to treatments, while also encouraging social interactions through the many workshops and meetings in the house. This holistic approach aims to reduce the cancer recurrence rate by improving compliance with treatments, encouraging healthy behaviours (such as exercise, healthy diet, mindfulness, relaxation therapy) and thereby improving immunity. https://www.lavielaottignies.org/
Project country: South America, South Asia, Africa
Grant period: 2020 - 2021
The World Duchenne Organization/UPPMD is the largest, most influential and impactful patient organisation for rare diseases. It is dedicated to improving quality of care, the development of medicines, and access to innovative therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy/Becker Muscular Dystrophy (DMD/BMD) patients. In 2020/2021, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the World Duchenne Organization/UPPMD in empowering patients with DMD and their families in South America, South Asia and Africa, educating and mentoring patient advocates while supporting the launch, development and sustainability of new patient organisations. https://www.worldduchenne.org
