World Childhood Foundation

The goal of the World Childhood Foundation can be expressed quite simply: children should be allowed to be children. That is why Childhood works on behalf of the most vulnerable of children – those who are often ignored or forgotten.

Childhood supports more than 100 projects in 14 countries with a focus on helping street- children, children living in institutions, young mothers and children who are the victims of sexual abuse. Girls are often even more at risk, which is why Childhood has a particular focus on helping girls.

 
Vattenfall and Childhood have been working together since 2005 to help provide a better future for at-risk children. Vattenfall's former CEO, Lars G. Josefsson feels that it is important to not just provide financial support, but to be actively involved as well.

"Childhood supports projects in most of the countries where Vattenfall runs its business. This makes it an excellent cooperation partner for us," he says. "Through Childhood, we can get all of our 32,000 employees involved in supporting a single sponsorship project. We try to use our knowledge and networks to develop projects and spread information about the issues that Childhood deals with," says Lars G. Josefsson.
(Lars G. Josefsson, former (2000-2010) President and Chief Executive Officer, CEO)

There are many important reasons why Vattenfall takes social responsibility by working with such organizations as Childhood. We want our employees to feel pride in the company. Furthermore, it is important for us to work actively and long term on the projects that we sponsor.

In Poland and Germany, Vattenfall has been involved in organizing conferences on issues having to due with child abuse. In Warsaw, the result was that government authorities chose to support a Childhood project aimed at preventing maltreatment of children. Knowledge of these methods will now be spread throughout much of the country.

"Another way to spread knowledge about Childhood is through its blog in swedish, 'Uppdrag Barn', which was started by Vattenfall and Childhood in the fall. Via the blog, we are able to meet young people on location where they live and work," says Lars G. Josefsson.

Vattenfall is one of Childhood's major partners

By supporting the World Childhood Foundation, we can provide more children with the opportunity of developing into strong, secure and responsible individuals. World Childhood Foundation was established in 1999 by H.M. Queen Silvia, see picture. Today, the organization is represented in Brazil, Germany and USA through independent foundations.
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