In 2015, SOS-Kinderdorf (SOS Children’s Village) and the cruise line AIDA Cruises are celebrating the 10th year of their partnership. With a total of around 820,000 euros, AIDA Cruises has supported various SOS-Kinderdorf projects since 2004 in Germany, Africa, and in the Philippines. The donations are proceeds from the traditional New Year’s Eve raffle organized by AIDA Cruises each year on board its fleet.
The cruise line has contributed to some of these proceeds. “We are grateful to have had a reliable partner at our side with AIDA Cruises for now over a decade. With the company’s support we have been able to realize many projects all over the world and to thereby provide help that makes a difference,” says Elke Tesarczyk, marketing director of SOS-Kinderdorf e.V.

The proceeds from the 2014/2015 New Year’s Eve raffle to the amount of 100,000 euros will be donated to the SOS Youth Center and SOS Social Center in Iloilo in the Philippines, which gives children and young people in the region the opportunity of school education and vocational training. “We are very pleased by our guests’ continued readiness to join AIDA in taking responsibility for those in need. With our support, we want to give children who have not had the luck to enjoy a carefree childhood new hope and pave the way for a better future for them,” says Monika Griefahn Ph.D., Chief Sustainability Officer at AIDA Cruises.

AIDA Cruises previously supported the SOS Children’s Villages in the Philippines in 2014. After the severe typhoon Haiyan, they are particularly in need of assistance.

Thanks to donations provided by AIDA Cruises, a medical center and two family homes were built in the SOS Children’s Village in Natitingou, Benin in 2008 and 2009. The company additionally supported emergency aid projects in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia between 2010 and 2013. The donations to these countries financed, among other projects, food and school meal programs, as well as the supply of clean drinking water for 3,000 families.