good.bee

The “good.bee” brand was created in 2008 with the idea of further developing the concept of Die Zweite Sparkasse in Erste Group’s foreign subsidiaries. It has been initated by ERSTE Foundation in cooperation with the shareholders Erste Bank, WIZZIT South Africa and C.E.F.S. These partners are cooperating in starting up a service organisation in Romania that provides financial services to customers in remote areas and to social groups who do not have access, or only limited access, to banking services.

ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration

The ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration is designed to recognise and promote outstanding organisations in the public and non-profit sectors whose work is oriented towards social change and creating a society with equal chances and opportunities for everyone. The award adds value to social practice by highlighting innovative projects in Central and Southeast European Countries.

Die Zweite Sparkasse (The Second Savings Bank). The Bank for the Unbankable.

The best-known project of ERSTE Foundation to date in Austria is “Die Zweite Sparkasse”. This “bank for the unbankable” offers credit accounts to people who have got into financial difficulties and no longer have access to banking services. From its beginnings in Vienna in 2006, it extended to Innsbruck, Salzburg, Klagenfurt, and Graz. Partners in this programme are counselling organisations such as Caritas (a social service NGO) and debt counselling services but also include financial service providers such as Erste Bank Oesterreich, savings banks or Vienna Insurance Group.

KomenskýFond

„Omnes, omnia, omnino.” (Teach everything in-depth to everyone.)
This quote of Johann Amos Comenius is the motto of the KomenskýFond by ERSTE Foundation and Caritas. In Czech, Comenius is called Jan Amos Komenský, born 28 March 1592 in Southeast Moravia, died 15 November 1670 in Amsterdam.
 

Generations in Dialogue

All European countries are facing increasing numbers of elderly people and related increases in dependency. This will have major implications for pension, health, and long-term care schemes. While European countries can build on well-developed health systems, traditional ways of coping with the risk of long-term care are not sustainable.

Generations in Dialogue Fellowship for Social Researcher 2008/2009

Ensuring Income Security and Welfare in old Age

Across the globe, the population is growing older. One of the main challenges for governments and the whole societies is how to secure safe income and welfare in the old age. ERSTE Foundation is taking an active role in facing those challenges by funding its first research programme on societal transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Street Children

They work in the Belgrade streets. They live in drainage holes, abandoned cellars, train carriages, parks and corridors. They don’t have regular and healthy meals or access to health care. They don’t go to school. Very often they are victims of violence and prostitution. They are called the street children. However, they don’t have time
to be children.

Oral Histories of Women from Vojvodina

For hundreds of years, there were very few stories about women. Their lives, successes, joys or sufferings passed almost unnoticed. There was silence about their abuse, poverty or gender inequality. In Vojvodina, with support of ERSTE Foundation, the Women’s Studies and Research has prepared a 600-page publication which comprises the oral histories of women from this Serbian province. The book sheds a light on the circumstances which influenced the women’s lives in this multicultural environment.

Course: Supporting Integration

For People working in Migration and Integration
September 2008 to October 2009

Migration is increasingly becoming an inherent component of societies across the globe. Cultural, religious and ethnic diversity pose a growing challenge within these societies. This course addresses the practical applications of integration work and the specific challenges facing Austria and Europe. It approaches integration as a process of interaction between all the parties involved.

European Fund for the Balkans

Have you ever wondered how individuals and organisations from the Western Balkan countries can get closer to the European Union? So have we, and together with three leading European foundations we have given a contribution by setting up the European Fund for the Balkans.

Volunteer-Finance 2008 / Volontiraj-Kreditiraj 2008

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended fourteen years ago. Those who were children then are now at the end of their secondary education, facing high unemployment rate. The apathy is widespread. The system of values incoherent. And yet, the  young people are lacking motivation for any socially useful work. In order to foster volunteering, as well as to boost the self-confidence and the prospects of the country’s youth, NGO Infohouse started the Volunteer-Finance initiative. In 2007, they won the first prize of the ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration.

Oikocredit: Ethical investment recommendation

€ 50 - as much (or, as little!) may decide on the subsistence of a whole family. In many poor regions of the world, € 50 is enough to set up a small business, a business that will support not only the owner but his or her entire family, but most banks refuse to grant even small loans to poor people. Microcredit finance gives these people economic autonomy - and is thus a socially responsible to invest money.