As a major international company, ING feels it has a responsibility to make a positive contribution to society. Our global education programme ING Chances for Children is a partnership with UNICEF.
Since 2005, this programme helps UNICEF provide schooling to children in Ethiopia, India and Brazil. Education gives children a real chance of securing better jobs and income prospects in the future and children who go to school are less at risk of having to work at a young age.
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In addition to education, we are involved in microfinance. Microfinance aims to combat poverty by means of economic development. For example in India, where ING Vysya Bank provides loans to people who have no access to mainstream financial institutions. In this way, ING enables people to build up a company and support their families. Our employees are keen to do voluntary work - for our microfinance initiatives, for UNICEF or for one of the many programmes that are developed by local ING branches. For example, our employees have been involved in building houses in the Philippines, helping out at schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the Netherlands, distributing meals to the elderly in the USA and collecting toys for orphaned children in Mexico.
Finally, ING cooperates closely with governments and instiututions to share our knowledge, for example with countries that want to restructure their financial sectors. We also make donations to numerous charitable organisations and good causes. In the Netherlands, ING is for example the main sponsor of the Rijksmuseum, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Natuurmonumenten (Dutch society for nature conservation).
For more information about these and other initiatives, go to our website www.ing.com/cr. For more information about ING Chances for Children and ING Microfinance, go to www.ingchancesforchildren.com and www.ingmicrofinance.com
As part of the ING Chances for Children programme, on 20 November 2008, more than 12,000 ING employees all over the world were involved in the Global Challenge, a joint effort in aid of various local community projects.
For example, 100 staff members read stories to children in public libraries in Bangalore (India).