Scientia et Educatio Naturam Sanitatemque Emuniunt
Science and Education Preserve Nature and Health
La Science et l'Éducation Préservent la Nature et la Santé
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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Footprint to Freedom champions survivor-led initiatives, combatting human trafficking in the Netherlands and East Africa. It strives for a world where survivors of human trafficking are thriving members of the community without stigma, surrounded by trained service providers, fair laws & policies for reintegrating survivors into society, and alternative livelihood options to those at risk of trafficking or being exploited.
In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is donating to support the setup of an empowerment and rehabilitation centre.
The project will focus on three main aspects: awareness raising, economic support, and alternative livelihood opportunities for at-risk children and teenagers, especially young women and girls, thereby reducing their vulnerability. It also wants to raise awareness about human trafficking and empower vulnerable populations at risk of trafficking to be able to identify common red flags and protect themselves.
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.
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.
© E.Cartuyvels - Handicap International
Handicap International Belgium (Rwanda and Kenya)
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.
Infirmiers de Rue asbl (Belgium)
Launched in 2006 by Emilie Meessen et Sara Janssens, this non-profit organisation fights for the end of homelessness, working for the sustainable reintegration of homeless people, mainly addressing their hygiene needs and nurturing their talents.
Street work is complemented by the collaboration of different agents working to improve their medical, psychological and social wellbeing. The organisation provides long term support, ensuring that the person has stable housing and a support network. This integral approach ensures the durability of the organisation's actions and prevents a return to the street.
Infirmiers de Rue's vision is of a society without homelessness. They are convinced that it is not inevitable, neither for the person nor for society.
In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels supported the newly launched Liège (BE) branch and its activities in the region. Infirmiers de Rue supported 14 homeless patients in Liège, including 6 requiring a more intensive approach, aged between 31 and 66. Thanks to the organisation’s “housing first” approach, 3 patients are now back in a long- term home, while 2 others have found temporary accommodation.
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.
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.
© Habitat for Humanity
Nadacia Habitat for Humanity International (Trinidad and Tobago)
Habitat for Humanity International is the world´s leading housing NGO. They build strength, stability, and self-reliance through shelter by empowering people in the world’s poorest communities to overcome the chronic lack of decent housing. In Trinidad and Tobago, vulnerable and disenfranchised persons are exposed to various capacity building initiatives and contribute to building their own homes alongside volunteers. Habitat provides them with money management, life skills, construction technology, and disaster risk reduction training.
Thanks to SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support, Habitat will specifically build the resilience of communities to water-related challenges and disasters by installing rainwater harvesting within the communities facing a high risk of exposure to water-borne diseases.
NairoBits is a non-profit organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya, which serves disadvantaged youth from low-income backgrounds through the innovative and creative use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). NairoBits wants to ensure that each beneficiary's life is transformed sustainably through a combination of hands-on digital skills training, reproductive health education, job placements, and other business development services. This approach seeks to unlock the potential of the targeted youth and improve their economic well-being and psychosocial welfare by building and developing relevant interpersonal and professional skills through an advanced training curriculum.
In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is contributing to the initiative "Girls Go: Powering a Future for Girls through Digital Inclusion".
The project promotes digital literacy among 500 girls and young women aged 15-24 from informal urban settlements and rural Kenya through access to an enabling learning environment that develops and supports their acquisition of knowledge and technical competencies. The program will also promote equal opportunities in tech, encourage social innovations and access to resources and assets that build their independence and capital, and encourage societal contribution.
Sensorial Handicap Cooperation (Senegal)
Sensorial Handicap Cooperation's mission is to promote the integration and development of children who are blind or visually impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing through the establishment of a suitable, qualitative, and accessible educational environment. To this end, it contributes to the long-term strengthening of local structures in the field of sensory disability by training educators and setting up infrastructures and equipment adapted to these types of disabilities. To fully contribute to the integration of these young people into society, Sensorial Handicap Cooperation also uses medical, paramedical, social, environmental, and economic components in its projects.
In this context, SENSE Foundation Brussels’s 2021 grant enabled Sensorial Handicap Cooperation, through its local partner INEFJA, to support the education of blind and visually impaired children in four regions of Senegal through 15 inclusive schools, the acquisition of specialised pedagogical material, teacher training and awareness raising.
Twenty-five new teachers received training in Braille and in the various techniques of educational adaptation, and 16 Pedagogical Activity Units were set up during the 2020-2021 school year, providing continuous training to the various educational actors. One hundred and three visually impaired children have benefited from the project. Ophthalmological examination was carried out for each child before enrolment, to adapt the educational curriculum to his or her blindness. Disability awareness activities were developed for families, communities, and public authorities. To encourage environmental management in schools, a programme was also initiated in these inclusive schools. Teachers, headmasters, and students received additional training on how to preserve a healthy school environment. The whole community was mobilised during clean-up sessions and beautified the fronts and the playground of the inclusive schools. In addition, the project provided 17 schools with waste bins.
In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is renewing its support to expand and strengthen the quality of learning in the new Inclusive School for Deaf and Hearing Children (EISEC), through the provision of specific teaching aids and materials, the in-service training of teachers in sign language, inclusive pedagogy and psychological monitoring of deaf children, and by promoting the use of new information and communication technologies.
Children will also benefit from better psychosocial and (para)medical care linked to their sensory disability and social inclusion actions in their living environment. Finally, the project will help contribute to the costs related to the care of 45 deaf children from more remote regions.
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Aktion Deutschland Hilft (Germany)
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.
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.
Edelweiss ASBL is a general 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 the ASBL building.
SENSE Foundation Brussels's grant is enabling the ASBL to rent containers for two months in order to set up common living spaces without uprooting the children.
Fleur Service Social ASBL (Belgium)
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
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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.
"Le Bateau ivre - Maison d'accueil" (Belgium)
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.
For the past 60 years, in Brussels and Wallonia, L’Ilot’s mission has been to address the needs of homeless people, providing a wide and diversified offer of services, all adapted to the particular situations of these individuals or families. Thanks to individual, tailored psychosocial support, L’Ilot seeks to build sustainable solutions, allowing people to leave homelessness for good and to take care of themselves in the future. L’Ilot works around 5 pillars: emergency shelter, temporary accommodation, housing, training and employment, and food health. In 2018, L’Ilot welcomed and accompanied more than 1,260 homeless people, among whom 101 were able to find stable housing.
In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels's support was oriented towards the project Les Pots de L’Ilot, which professionally trained 15 homeless people in the food and hospitality sector.
The support also enabled l’Ilot’s sustainable food axis to grow significantly through the C.A.B.A.S. project, which combats food waste. SENSE Foundation Brussels also supported the renovation and refurbishment of L’Ilot’s day centre.
In 2021, the Foundation focused its support specifically on this latter project.
Les Oeuvres de la Mie de Pain (France)
The non-profit organisation Les Oeuvres de 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.
Oeuvre de Suivi, Education et Protection des Enfants de Rue "OSEPER" (Democratic Republic of Congo)
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.
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, 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.
Société Royale de Philanthropie, Fondation d'Utilité Publique (Belgium)
The Société Royale de Philanthropie supports disadvantaged communities in Brussels by granting microloans with 0% interest rates.
This financial support is never given directly to the beneficiaries but is used to pay their daily bills.
The SRP also donates to the elderly who do not earn a sufficient retirement pension to live decently. In addition, volunteers spend time with them, so they do not feel lonely, and have someone to talk to.
In 2019, SENSE Foundation Brussels provided a grant to the SRP to help them support single-parent families, children, teenagers and disabled people with school fees and/or vocational training.
In addition, the grant enabled the organisation to provide monthly support to a food bank.
SOS Children's Villages (Belgium)
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.
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.
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.
