On 13 April Rietumu Charity Fund – the biggest such organisation in Latvia – marked its seventh birthday.
Rietumu Bank has already been widely engaged in charity activities since the late 1990s. The assistance volumes grew continuously and in 2007 a decision was taken to establish a separate organisation to be solely and fully focused on such tasks – Rietumu Charity Fund, which has obtained the status of a community interest company.
The Fund is the main tool via which the bank, its clients and partners render different kinds of assistance to those in need. The Chairman of the Council of the Fund is Arkady Suharenko and its Chairperson of the Board is Inga Sina.
Rietumu Bank shareholders have always been guided by the concept of corporate citizenship, which anticipates among other things, social responsibility. In other words, a successful company, apart from performing its immediate activities – the creation of jobs, payment of taxes, etc., must also do something for the community and be active in the social sphere – to contribute to welfare improvement and to change the lives of people in need for the best.
The work of Rietumu Charity Fund is based on two core principles – to provide assistance in such a way that people are able to use its results for a long time and repeatedly, so that something needed and useful including material things, is left after each project, as well as to render help in areas where no assistance has yet been provided from the government or municipalities due to some reason. In other words, the Fund focuses on practical results and the long-term effect of its charity operations.
During the entire period of the Fund’s operation, a large number of projects of various scale have been implemented, and the total volume of help during these seven years has exceeded EUR 2.5 million.
Among the biggest such initiatives are the competition “Search for the Best Nurse”, implemented by the Fund jointly with the Latvian newspaper
Diena, “A Step towards a Better Life”, within the framework of which assistance is provided to the least socially protected layers of the population in Latvian regions, the restoration of the sacral heritage of Latvia, the support of young musicians of the country, and cooperation with municipalities of Riga and Jurmala.
“When we established our fund we were well aware of the aims and tasks we had to solve, but it was important to learn to do it the right way, by using the opportunities provided by Latvian legislation and the small human resource available at our disposal. It is pleasing to see that there are a number of big and bright projects which are important and needed by people, as well as which are highly assessed by the community.
I would like to thank everyone who has been cooperating with us throughout all of this period, those who have provided support and assistance in various forms – advice, money, personal participation,” said Inga Sina.
The Fund starts its eighth year of operation with a number of wide-scale projects – assistance to the Fire and Rescue Service of Latvia, as well as support of the children who lost their parents in the collapse of the shopping centre in Riga. The Fund is also continuing its long-term projects and searching for new ones as well.
Eleonora Gailisha Mass Media and Public Relations
Phone: +371-67020506
Fax: +371-67020563
E-mail:
egailisha@rietumu.lv
