How our programmes helped children in 2017
March 20, 2018
It’s time to celebrate all the wonderful things our partners achieved for children in 2017!
Today—the International Day of Happiness—we are launching our bright and cheerful annual review, Brighter Futures, to celebrate some of our partners’ greatest stories from 2017.
Brighter Futures focuses on new grants that we gave in 2017 and some big achievements from previous grants—such as the opening of the world’s first solar farm in a refugee camp, a project funded by the Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign to bring light and power to refugee families.
Our emergency response partners saved lives and protected children in incredibly difficult situations, such as the under-reported conflict in Yemen and the Rohingya refugee crisis, which the United Nations has called the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.
And we had a lot to celebrate about our own work. In particular, we
• gave more in grants than ever before (€144 million)
• worked with more partners than ever before (74 partners)
• sent our 500th IKEA co-worker on an IWitness trip to visit partners’ projects
• gave our second-largest grant ever (€40 million to help fight climate change).
Transforming futures
Per Heggenes, IKEA Foundation CEO, said: “We believe that strategic grant making can help communities transform their own futures. Nothing inspires us more than seeing our partners and the communities they serve using our grants to create remarkable changes.
“Last year was a particularly exciting one for us, as we got to see our partnerships bring new power—literally and figuratively—to communities that have lived without it for so long.
“We would like to thank our partners for their incredible work and our supporters for championing the projects we fund. We look forward to seeing how 2018 continues to change children’s lives.”