citation Under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde

OUR APPEAL

This appeal is founded on the premise that every child and young person in Belgium, regardless of race, gender, income or geography; should be supported to realise their full potential in main stream education. Europe's Children Our Concern will provide funding to schools and organizations that promote child achievement, through the delivery of products and services that account for the creative, physical and special learning needs of a child.

Expatica Communications B.V. is an international media company founded in 2000 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Expatica provides daily news, features and practical information on living abroad in English for the international communities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the UK. Our goal is to provide high quality content and services to all countries across Europe and beyond

Expatica Belgium is Belgium's leading expatriate community hub for adjusting to and living in Belgium. Expatica Belgium connects with 120,000 people each month; on-line, in print and in person (events, trainings, seminars, social and professional networking events). We operate as an inclusive organization and our services are used by local and international people.

Expatica provides news and information for people that prefer to speak English living, working, studying, moving to and visiting Belgium. The Expatica website (www.expatica.com/be) was consulted over 650.000 times in 2009!

As a logical next step, Expatica Belgium has expanded from virtual to physical, by opening The Expatica Café located close to Montgomery.

Children who learn differently

To date, there has been much done to ensure that the voice of children finding main stream education difficult, a little less distressing. Not only does the child suffer, but often the families find themselves caught up in the suffering as well. Modern technology has made it possible to better understand the conditions that may cause one child to learn differently from another. And, the adult population better understand that difference is good because of the many roles that are required for successful communities to thrive.

There may be many issues that stop a child from learning such as hunger, dyslexia, family problems, area where they live, or a lack of equipment for the schools. Our initiative aims to raise funds so that more creative community and educational projects can be implemented. There is no shortage of passion, skill or projects - there is a shortage of funding and leadership to ensure delivery.

Raising Funds - Sponsorship Opportunity

We do raise funds in as many ways as possible:

  • We communicate with the BBC children in need appeal (UK) on the basis of learning from them, making use of their developed tools, and ensuring that we compliment their mission but for children living in Belgium, http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/
  • Business sponsors are asked to support us in line with their CSR policies and as active members of their communities (vat invoice or receipt provided on request), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility
  • Individuals can support us by hosting fund raising events or donating time to manage some of the resulting projects
  • Telecommunication and financial companies can help us by delivering tools that make it easy for people to make donations.

Making a donation

Here are the current ways to make a much needed donation:

  • Credit card or paypal donations can be made via the link below (reference Appeal)
  • Donations can also be made directly into the ECOC bank account - ING 310-1238787-86; IBAN : BE78-310-1238787-86; BIC : BBRUBEBB (reference Appeal)

Running Total

Here we will provide a running total of funds raised since the launch of the appeal in May 2010.
-= 2,500 Euro =-

Governance

As a registered charity, ECOC has in place a structure for ensuring that all resources are allocated and accounted for. Financial and project reports are posted on our website to improve transparency, and annual public meetings are held every June to allow for questions and answers. Quarterly news letters are delivered and weekly updates are made to our website.

For the process of allocating funds to projects, we are developing a partnership with a respected Belgian foundation.

Projects Completed

Here we will provide a summary of projects implemented since the launch of the appeal in May 2010.

Please do Contact Us should you have any questions.