Scientia et Educatio Naturam Sanitatemque Emuniunt
Science and Education Preserve Nature and Health
La Science et l'Éducation Préservent la Nature et la Santé
Providing ad hoc assistance to charitable organisations and NGOs
Supported Projects
2022 - 2024
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2022 - 2023
Established as a non-profit organization in 1973, Centre Regional d’Education et de Services (CRES) is a youth assistance institution, providing daily assistance to 76 children (with nearly 750 children cared for each year) in great difficulty as well as to their families throughout the region of Mons, Belgium. CRES is structured around 6 distinct projects: • Two residential services that accommodate 30 young people. • A residential service which welcomes, in emergencies and for short stays, 7 young people. • A residential service which welcomes 12 young people experiencing serious mistreatment. • A family support service for 15 young people. • A support service which intervenes intensively with the families of 12 young people in situations of serious negligence. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported CRES in its first step to achieving energy independence. Thanks to the donation from the SENSE Foundation Brussels, CRES equipped its main building with 100 solar panels, covering 50% of its total energy consumption, and reducing its annual energy bill by 6,000 Euros. https://www.cres-mons.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2022 - 2024
Based in the centre of Brussels, Belgium, Espace Social Télé-Service (ESTS) was founded in 1961 with the mission to help people in precarious situations or extreme poverty. To achieve its mission and fight against poverty, ESTS provides various services and projects based on 3 main pillars: individual psychological support depending on personal situations; collective actions such as weekly workshops aimed at reducing isolation and promoting social networks and self-esteem; and employment and job training programs through its shop and renovation activities in the construction sector. ESTS also offers legal advice, food support, and debt relief to users, as well as a day shelter for homeless people. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported ESTS, helping to fund the renovations of its day shelter. The renovations aim to make the space more welcoming, increase the opportunities for social interactions, and enable the ESTS team to better address the basic needs of users as well as provide better social and psychological support. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of ESTS for an additional 2 years, helping to cover the remaining costs of the day shelter renovations. https://espacesocial.be
Photo: www.paulfrancoisgay.com
Project country: Uganda
Grant period: 2021 - 2023
Active since 2008, Footprint to Freedom is a survivor-led organization run exclusively by survivors of human trafficking to create spaces and programs that develop the agency and leadership of survivors of trafficking to support recovery from trauma and to sustain their reintegration into society. The organization champions survivor-led initiatives to combat human trafficking in the Netherlands and East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and expanding to Burundi and Tanzania). Its general activities focus on six-interlinked approaches: Prevention, Education, Empowerment, Engagement, Reintegration, and Advocacy. In 2021/2022, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Footprint to Freedom, enabling the creation of an empowerment centre in Uganda to offer survivors of human trafficking and at-risk communities, especially teen mothers, employment-oriented skills and remedial education. Thanks to the support of the SENSE Foundation Brussels, 120 women were trained in computer literacy and sustainable stitching, and an additional 80 women received training in business skills and financial literacy. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Footprint to Freedom, enabling it to provide a program of practical tailoring classes and sustainable fashion practices to 15 participants. The program aims to equip survivors of human trafficking with essential skills in tailoring, integrated eco-tailoring, and business. Beyond skills development, it also aims to foster environmental awareness within the fashion industry and empower participants to embark on entrepreneurial journeys in sustainable fashion. https://www.footprinttofreedom.org
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2019 - 2023
Started in 1960 in Belgium, L’Ilot aims to address the needs of homeless people in Brussels and the Wallonia region by providing a wide and diversified range of services, all adapted to the specific situations of these individuals and families. L’Ilot works around 5 pillars: emergency shelter, temporary accommodation, housing, training and employment, and food health. Thanks to tailored psychosocial support, L’Ilot seeks to build sustainable solutions, enabling people to leave homelessness for good and become self-sufficient. In 2022, L’Ilot welcomed and accompanied more than 1,700 homeless people and distributed 40,000 meals. In 2019/2020, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported L’Ilot and its project Les Pots de L’Ilot, helping to provide food and hospitality training to 15 homeless people. In 2020/2021, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of L’Ilot, enabling renovations and refurbishment of its day centre. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported L’Ilot to perform renovations on its shelter for homeless men in Brussels, including the installation of a photovoltaic system, saving approximately per year 1700-2500 Euros and 4.3 tonnes of CO2. https://ilot.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2022 - 2024
Founded in Brussels, Belgium in 1975, Nativitas is a non-profit organisation which aims to help those in precarious or isolated situations through its day centre/social restaurant/café, La Bicoque, located in the heart of the Marolles area. La Bicoque is open every day to everyone whatever their age, origin, culture or religion. Nativitas tries to give back the notion of respect, dignity and rights, and provides material support to the most disadvantaged in our society while playing an active role in facilitating their social and cultural integration. In addition to providing meals and meal parcels, Nativitas also offers cultural activities, social services, clothing, language courses, hairdressing services, showers, shelter for 20 to 25 persons, legal advice and different workshops. By reaching out to the most disadvantaged, Nativitas aims to help improve their daily lives and give them hope. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Nativitas, helping to provide daily meals for 280 individuals. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Nativitas, helping to provide daily meals to 175 individuals and distribute 620 monthly food parcels to an additional 310 beneficiaries. https://www.nativitas.be/
Project country: France
Grant period: 2022 - 2023
In 2016, Un Petit Bagage d’Amour (UPBDA) was launched in Paris, France, after its founder, while working as a midwife, encountered a woman pregnant with twins and using two plastic bags as her maternity suitcase. In 2021, the association UPBDA Nantes was officially created by four mothers to help pregnant women, babies, and families living in extreme difficulty. UPBDA Nantes helps mothers-to-be by providing their "luggage", containing everything they’ll need in the first months of motherhood: baby clothes from 0 to 12 months, hygiene products for the baby and the mother, food equipment, and childcare equipment (blankets, diapers, strollers…). In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported UPBDA, providing the hygiene products for babies and mothers for about 100 sets of luggage. https://www.facebook.com/UnPetitBagageDAmourNantes/
Supported Projects
2019 - 2022
Project country: Germany
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Aktion Deutschland Hilft is an alliance of German humanitarian organisations. SENSE Foundation Brussels's donation is supporting the victims of the 2021 floods through waste disposal, food and shelter, and psychological support. https://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de/en/
Project country: France
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
LEA, Lutter Ensemble Autrement, supports families whose child suffers from an illness or disability, to help them organise their professional and personal lives around the need to provide care for their child. LEA offers free support on the administrative, psychological, and material levels. Their objectives are to facilitate access to existing legal aid, reduce inequalities, decrease or break the isolation of families, facilitate access to expensive equipment and alleviate the parents’ stress and mental burden to focus on acceptance and resilience. Thanks to SENSE Foundation Brussels’s 2021/2022 grant, LEA will distribute a toolkit for caregivers and provide parenting support, a toll-free number available to parents and caregivers, as well as private thematic groups on social networks. They will also develop an assistance network between families. https://www.asso-lea.org
Project country: France
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Association Aurore’s mission is to welcome and support individuals in situations of precariousness or exclusion as they regain autonomy through accommodation, care, and professional training. Recognised as a public interest organisation since 1875, this association uses its experience to offer innovative forms of care, adapting to the evolution of precariousness and exclusion. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting Yankadi, a social restaurant with two main objectives: the socio-professional inclusion of unemployed people and the daily production of nearly a hundred meals, in an effort to reduce food waste. https://aurore.asso.fr
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: Belgium
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
The Belgian Red Cross seeks to alleviate human suffering and prevent humanitarian crises. After the July 2021 floods, SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support has contributed to implementing relief operations, distributing meals as well as hygiene and cleaning products, installing sanitary facilities, providing medical and psychosocial assistance, temporary accommodation, and social transport. https://www.croix-rouge.be
Project country: Slovakia
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
The Divé Maky Civic Association was founded in 2008 and actively seeks out and supports talented Romany children and young people. Its mission is to provide children with financial and professional assistance to make their career dreams come true. The main goals of Divé Maky’s activities are to improve the children’s integration, talent, and skills’ development and increase their motivation to study properly throughout the school year. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting the mentoring programme for Roma students, aiming to professionally mentor 45 primary, secondary, and university students, through inclusive coaching techniques targeted at young people from marginalised Roma communities across Slovakia. The programme also includes a "Train the Mentor" pillar, where 20 mentors will learn to understand the specifics of excluded groups of children and young people in terms of poverty, ethnicity, disability, as well as family, community, society, work, and school environment. https://divemaky.sk
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
L'Edelweiss is a residential service which offers accommodation to 15 children aged 3 to 18, based on Youth Welfare Services and Judicial Protection Services mandates. The July 2021 floods caused considerable damage to its building. SENSE Foundation Brussels's grant is enabling the residential service to rent containers for two months in order to set up common living spaces without uprooting the children. https://edelweissasbl.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2020 - 2022
Entrevues aims to improve the mobility of visually impaired people with the help of certified guide dogs, so that they can reach the highest possible level of autonomy and independence. The organisation’s main activities are public awareness, dog training, and helping visually impaired people behave with the guide dogs and, use a white cane as well as spatial orientation techniques, and public awareness. In 2020/2021, seven guide dogs were trained, one of which thanks to the support of SENSE Foundation Brussels. The dog was then matched with a visually impaired person. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is renewing its support. https://www.entrevues.be/
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
La Ferme du Monceau ASBL is an educational farm whose objective is the inclusion of people with special needs, via a reception and meeting space adapted to people with disabilities. Every week they welcome and organise activities for institutions or schools. They work with day centres, people in citizen service, trainees, etc. They organise camps and holiday stays that are accessible to all, and they offer hippotherapy sessions and riding lessons to children in the area. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels's grant is supporting La Ferme Du Monceau to help cover its loss of revenue after many activities were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. https://fermedumonceau.be
Project country: Belgium
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Fleur Service Social ASBL is a social and circular enterprise for socioprofessional integration, supporting disadvantaged people in building their new life projects. This support takes the form of housing, social removals, and second-hand shops. The donation of SENSE Foundation Brussels is allowing the association to support 50 families affected by the July 2021 floods in the municipality of Trooz (Liège), which was severely hit. https://www.fleurservicesocial.be
Project country: Kenya
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Footsteps is a leadership and entrepreneurship incubator, established in 2015, reaching out to girls and young women aged 9-25 to promote and encourage entrepreneurial awareness among them. Girls and women living in the urban slums of Nairobi face social and economic instability and vulnerability, experiencing some of the lowest school enrolment rates in Kenya. These girls are exposed to violence and insecurity in their everyday lives. Footsteps's intervention model focuses on leadership development, formal and non-formal education, vocational training, and the creation of innovative, safe spaces for girls and young women's involvement in entrepreneurial activities, helping them reach their financial independence. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is helping fund the Dada Academy, an entrepreneurship and training program equipping young women with skills for success in business and employment, increasing their opportunity to earn a safe income and keeping them safe from abuse or HIV infections. The program is committed to providing a bridge to employment and business opportunities to 50 young women in the informal settlements of Nairobi. https://footsteps.co.ke
Project country: India
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Since its launch in 2015, FOREFRONT Charity has worked with community members to build 45 clean water wells, bringing clean water to over 73,000 people to date. FOREFRONT Charity regularly tests their wells and has found that its water quality is better than that of local bottled water. It has also distributed over 7,000 soap toys to children through local, women-led soap-making businesses. It has trained local people to run regular sanitary practices and water conservation workshops. In 2020, it launched its state-of-the-art elementary school in rural Kolluru, India, for 400 children to attend each year. The school also serves as a community centre for medical care, health workshops, and adult learning. Through clean water and sanitation, quality education, and medical care, FOREFRONT Charity empowers underserved communities to grow and thrive. In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting the Activity-based STEM Education for Disadvantaged Children in Rural India through FOREFRONT School. In the rural villages surrounding Kolluru, India, it is rare for a child to have the opportunity to attend school. Secondary school attendance in Kolluru is 37%, versus 74% in India and 76% worldwide. Female literacy is 32% in Kolluru, versus 66% in India and 83% worldwide. This project empowers 400 students each year, particularly girls, to grow in knowledge and passion for STEM through activity-based STEM learning, such as STEM lab equipment, an inquiry-based curriculum, STEM field trips, and learning technology & games. https://goforefront.org
Project country: Rwanda, Kenya
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
Handicap International is an independent charity working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict, and disaster. Working alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, it acts and testifies to meet their basic needs, improve their living conditions, and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights. The SENSE Foundation Brussels’s 2021/2022 grant is contributing to deploying and reinforcing the children protection safety net to prevent and respond to sexual violence against children, girls, and boys, with and without disabilities, at-risk or survivors of sexual violence, in Rwanda and Kenya. To this end, Handicap International works with the children, their families, their communities, and other professionals, including legal, social, psychosocial, medical, and educational services, providing awareness-raising and support activities, training, and mentoring programs. https://www.handicapinternational.be
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: Nepal
Grant period: 2021 - 2022
MAYAA Nepal is a charity created in 2012. It focuses on education, health, and social care to break the vicious circle of poverty. Nepal is still the poorest country in the world, with Haiti and Afghanistan. MAYAA Nepal acts in regions where domestic violence and alcoholism are the "norm" and personal hygiene standards are disastrous. Many women raise their children alone. Some children arrive at school hungry, and most of them suffer from deficiencies and severe stunted growth. Protecting them is, therefore, a priority. To this end, in 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting the Emergency Childcare Project through two initiatives: the renovation of the nursery in the Jarankhu District and the provision of enhanced meals to 40 children for one year. https://mayaa.world
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
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: 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
