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Audemars Piguet flowers in the favelas

October 2001




The Fondation Audemars Piguet subsidises a project in Chile

Children in the favelas have other concerns than caring for the environment. The Funcase foundation is attempting to create a change in attitude and to sow the seeds of enhanced quality of life in the favelas.

The two centres opened by the Fondation Funcase are located in two shantytowns on the edges of Santiago, named Esperanza and Casas Viejas. They organise activities intended for children who live with their own families, but receive neither a minimum of food nor education. Currently 300 children aged between 6 to 18 regularly attend these two centres. They receive food, psychological and social assistance and take part in recreational and training activities.

The Fondation Audemars Piguet has decided to provide a 25,000 Swiss franc subsidy for a programme that had been shelved for lack of funds : training instructors to head an environmental education project. Groups of 25 children will thus be able to take part in educational activities, workshops and trips to help them discover their environment.

By enabling these children to create islands of greenery in a particularly unfavourable setting, the Fondation hopes to help them become responsible for their environment and allow them to discover that they can change their surroundings.

The Funcase foundation (Fondacion cristiana de accion social y educacional) arose from the charity work of a Pentecotist pastor in Puente Alto in the 1970s. This action was subsequently developed through contacts established in Switzerland by this pastor's children, who sought refuge there after the coup d'État in 1973. The open centres were created in 1977, the Foundation was officially established in 1980 and recognised as a not-for-profit organisation in 1981.

The Fondation Audemars Piguet
As heir to a traditional legacy of prestige watchmaking, the Manufacture Audemars Piguet felt a duty to contribute to safeguarding the natural heritage and resources of our planet. Forests around the world have benefited from the help of the Fondation Audemars Piguet since 1992. The foundation now also supports projects combining the defence of the natural environment and aware-raising among children.
Taking part in reconstituting the forests devastated by storms that swept through Europe at the end of 1999 was the priority for 2000. The foundation also enabled the creation in autumn 2000 of the Aboreteum de la Baroche (Canton of Jura). Indigenous fruit trees of the Jura region which were in jeopardy following the storms can therefore be safeguarded. The Cantine in Elbasan (Albania) and the Funcase Fondation in Santiago (Chile) work with children from underprivileged families. Both organisations are receiving funding in 2001 from the Fondation Audemars Piguet, in order to develop a project destined to raise environmental awareness in a particularly unfavourable context.