As 2020 kicks off, it’s time to take a brief look back at a few of our accomplishments over the past year.

In 2019 we further strengthened our current projects by extending our support to 9 of our existing partners. We are pleased to make multi-year commitments of support to 8 of these. We also welcomed a new partner, Medisch Comité Nederland Vietnam (MCNV), with whom we have started a project in the Ben Tre province in Vietnam. The project involves offering support to women who are working to start up their own businesses.

We wrapped up our activities with the last partner we still had in Peru, Mama Alice. After G-Star RAW’s production in Peru ended a number of years ago, we continued working together with our partners there until they could carry out their projects without our support. The projects we supported involved providing vocational training to 135 underprivileged youth in metal-working and tourism. These projects will be continued by a local secondary school, with support from Mama Alice.

Each year, the Board of the GSRD Foundation visits one of our focus countries. In 2019 it was the turn of Vietnam. During the trip, Board members made on-site visits to 4 of our partners, including the Asia Foundation and REACH, which we have been supporting since 2014. As part of the visit, we also organized a meeting, graciously hosted by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Hanoi, with five of our partners. The meeting focused on common challenges and opportunities, and explored possibilities for working together further.

Watch this space for further updates on the valuable work our partners are doing, in what promises to be a busy and productive 2020.