HSBC in $10 mn push to combat child poverty

Mumbai, Nov 14: The HSBC Global Education Trust has launched 'Future First', a global US 10 million, dollars five-year initiative (2007-2012) to combat child poverty in collaboration with SOS Children's Villages - world's largest NGO for orphans and with local charitable organisations in countries.

The initiative will be taken up where HSBC has a presence, to provide education, healthcare, counselling and shelter to hundreds and thousands of street children, children in care and foster children.

'Future First' projects will be identified globally through an annual bidding process conducted by HSBC Country Coordinators globally.

These Coordinators will collaborate with local charitable organisations to submit a street children/children in need project for consideration by the programme secretariat in Mumbai.

Countries will also be encouraged to submit separate bids for a local SOS Children's Village project from amongst the 47 countries where SOS Children's Villages and HSBC have a common presence. All bids will be reviewed by the secretariat in Mumbai for consideration by trustees of the HSBC Global Education Trust in the UK three times per year, a release by HSBC Global Education Trust Chief Executive Dame Mary Richardson said.

According to UNICEF, every year over half of all births in the developing world (excluding China) go unregistered, denying more than 50 million children a basic birthright: recognition as a citizen. UNICEF and WHO estimates show that 100 million children spend a large portion of their lives on the streets, where they are exposed to abuse and exploitation.

An estimated 171 million children are working in hazardous conditions and with dangerous machinery, including in factories, mines and agriculture. Some 8.4 million children work in the worst forms of child labour, including prostitution and debt bondage, where children are exploited in slave-like conditions to pay off a debt.

SOS Children's Villages International President Helmut Kutin said ''Working together over the next five years, SOS Children's Villages and HSBC will support some of the world's most vulnerable orphaned and abandoned children and their communities. By providing education, vocational skills and basic but vital support through difficult times, HSBC will assist SOS in ensuring a secure future for these children and their families for generations to come.''

UNI