People in Need - Financed projects

Caritas Czech Republic

Caritas Czech Republic (formerly the Czech Association of Catholic Charities) focuses on charitable work throughout the Czech Republic. It operates dozens of care service centres, retirement homes, asylum homes for the homeless, homes for destitute mothers, and day-stay facilities and protected workshops for handicapped people.

Ceska Sporitelna has cooperated with Caritas Czech Republic since 2001 as its General Partner.  Every year, we participate by providing financial arrangements for the “Three-Kings’ Day Collections”, which are held between Christmas and Three-Kings Day.

In addition, Ceska Sporitelna participates in implementing other projects: for example, in 2002, it engaged in projects in the campaign “Let us Help Destitute Mother with Children”; in 2003, the year declared by the UN as the Year of the Handicapped, our cooperation was focused on that target group. In 2004, the Ceska Sporitelna Foundation replaced the Bank as the General Partner, participating every year in organising the Three Kings’ Collection and implementing other projects; some of them focus on treating drug abusers, some on combating domestic violence against women, and others focus on the mentally ill. 

www.charita.cz [new window]

Život 90

Život 90 provides humanitarian services for seniors. The Prague “Portus House” for seniors runs club rooms, counselling offices, transport services for handicapped seniors, information services, and many other activities, including educational courses and a theatre. Portus House is a unique model in the Czech Republic. Its goal is to provide support to the elderly who live in their own homes, allowing them to stay there as long as possible. The project addresses the problems of old age with modern and humane methods. It offers the opportunity of having a dignified old age, keeping seniors active, and helping them maintain their independence and self-sufficiency.  Aside from Prague, the association works in another three branches: Hradec Králové, Jihlava, and Zruč nad Sázavou.

Ceska Sporitelna began cooperating with Život 90 in 1992, by supporting a television programme for seniors. In subsequent years, it repeatedly contributed to the renovation and subsequently the furnishing of Portus House. In 2004, its role as a partner was taken over by the Ceska Sporitelna Foundation, which contributed to the extension of the emergency care service AREÍON in 2004 – 2007. In 2008, financial support goes to the furnishing and operation of a special Internet portal for seniors.

www.zivot90.cz [new window]

Nadační fond Klausových

The objective of the project “Seniors are Communicating” is to support the education of seniors in using and working with personal computers, mobile telephones, and payment cards. The project focuses on the group of seniors that has thus far not had the means and opportunity to get to know these modern means of communication, and strives to teach them how to use at least the basic functions.

In the first run of the project in 2007, more than one thousand students – seniors sat “at the school desks”. Due to the great interest by seniors, 50% more courses will held in 2008 than last year.

Supporting seniors and striving to improve the quality of their lives and education constitute an important pillar of the activities of the Ceska Sporitelna Foundation.

www.nadacnifondklausovych.cz [new window]

Palata - The home for Visually Impaired

 [new window]Palata – The home for Visually Impaired has been a home for the blind for 115 years.  Palata’s mission is to provide comprehensive healthcare to persons with visual handicaps, help them to maintain their full-fledged lives, and to improve their self-sufficiency, with an emphasis on an individualised approach.

The Palata Home is not only a permanent and dignified home for the visually impaired, but also a rehabilitation centre and a temporary home for those who have to learn to live with a visual handicap developed at a later age, needing highly professional education and assistance to be able to return to their homes.

Since its opening on 25 November 1893, Palata’s history has been connected with Ceska Sporitelna’s predecessor – the former Sporitelna Ceska in Prague took care of the financing of Palata, including the initial amount required to obtain the property for setting up the institution, until 1945, with short intermissions. The cooperation was renewed after 1989. The Ceska Sporitelna Foundation took over cooperation with Palata from Ceska Sporitelna in 2006.

www.palata.cz [new window]

Sananim

The civic association SANANIM is the largest non-governmental organisation in the country that provides services related to the care and treatment of addictions to non-alcohol drugs. It was established in 1990, and over its more than fifteen years it has managed to put into operation a comprehensive and complete system of caring for drug abusers. Presently, SANANIM is running six main programmes – Field Programmes, Contact Centre, Daytime Care Facility, and Karlov and Němčice Therapeutic Communities, the Follow-up Treatment Centre with Protected Housing, and many other supplementary programmes, the main one being the Drug Information Centre. Other programmes are organised primarily in the area of education, primary prevention, publication, and foreign cooperation.

In 2004, the Ceska Sporitelna Foundation took over the General Partnership of SANANIM from Ceska Sporitelna, which had worked with it for four years. Above all, the foundation contributed for the renovation of the Karlov Therapeutic Centre that focuses on prevention and treatment for youth and mothers with children. Presently, mothers do not have an opportunity to being treated while having their children with them, which was the reason for expanding the community’s capacity to accommodate this specific group. Other projects that have received financial support have included the furnishing of the Follow-up Treatment Centre, the Daytime Care Facility, and Café Therapy in Prague, and the therapeutic community in Karlov.

www.sananim.cz

Drop In

Drop In is a non-governmental healthcare institution focusing on out-patient contact, first aid, consulting, and drug problem therapy, in the form of what is referred to as harm reduction – the rational reduction of risks that arise from drug issues as a whole.

The Ceska Sporitelna Foundation supports the “Mobil Street” Services that focuses on initiating new contacts, consulting, and the minimisation of health and social risks among the population affected by non-alcoholic addictive substances. A special vehicle serves as a mobile out-patient clinic for trips in Prague and vicinity, to provide basic services – exchanging syringes, distribution of required medical materials, and the provision of basic treatment and advisory services. The main purpose is to minimise the risk of the transfer of infectious diseases (HIV-AIDS, various types of hepatitis) among drug users and to the rest of the population, and to motivate drug users and modify their behaviour and conduct.

www.dropin.cz

Helping Hands

The ČS Foundation has been cooperating with the Helping Hands association since 2006. Since 1991, the association has been involved in prevention, treatment and helping people that have problems with the use of addictive substances. Helping Hands provides its services at centres in seven cities in the South Moravian, Olomouc and Zlín regions. 

The ČS Foundation provided a financial contribution to support the EIKÓN centre, which aids clients in their effort to return to normal life in society by involving them in the workshop production program, where clients grasp basic social and employment skills with the support of working therapists.

www.podaneruce.cz [new window]

Dialog Jessenius

In the area of drug prevention in 2010, the ČS Foundation became partners with the public welfare society Dialog Jessenius and contributed to the drug prevention education program for secondary schools called “Can I help you?”. The aim of this project is primary prevention of risky behaviour and the creation of a functional educational mechanism at school, the core of which are the students themselves. 

The essence is to support the worthwhile spending of leisure time at creative workshops, where students can participate in artistic activities. They can take part in creative laboratories (film, arts, music, photography, interactive arts), where they create their own campaigns against various addictions such as drugs, smoking, alcohol, workaholism, pathological gambling, shopping, sex or food.

www.dialog-jessenius.cz [new window]