ING Solidarity Award Winners 2017;

On Thursday evening, the 6th annual ING Solidarity Awards were held - for the first time - at ING House in Luxembourg city centre, in multiple languages.

Colette Dierick, CEO at ING Luxembourg, welcomed the 120-strong audience to the Auditorium on level -1 of their new headquarters - many of them winners - to the event that had until now been held at the Forum Geesseknappchen in Luxembourg-Merl which attracted circa 350 each year.

The first part of the awards comprised the presentation of €1,000 cheques to 30 non-profit organisations - active in Luxembourg or internationally - which had been identified through online voting. These included: CSCE Rugby, Telstar Scouts, Special Olympics Luxembourg and Sportunity.

During the evening, videos of previous winning projects were shown, including a mini-farm run by Autisme Luxembourg (2016), Sportunity, promoting sporting inclusion (2015).

The jury had received and processed a total of 61 projects, from which there were 6 winners according to three categories (slightly different to previous years).

Humanity: Dropin Croix Rouge Luxembourg (partly voluntary: €5,000); Fondation Luxembourg San Salvador (100% voluntary: €5,000)

Integration: a psycho-social roof garden project for ATP asbl (partly voluntary: €5,000); for para-Olympic sport of Boccia for Amicale Sportive des Handicapés Physiques Luxembourg (100% voluntary: €5,000)

Other: a social and solidarity meeting space for Eis Epicerie (partly voluntary: €5,000); to provide clean water in schools for Philippines Luxembourg Society asbl (100% voluntary: €5,000)

In addition, the jury also identified two other projects to receive awards: (Coup de Pouce): Trisomie 21 Luxembourg asbl for their Dreamteam 21 “Born to be” dance project (€3,000); and (Coup de Coeur): Little Sequoia, to renovate a ruined school in Rwanda (€3,000).

The awards were followed by a reception for all awardees.

This annual event highlights the vast amount of voluntary work that happens throughout the Grand Duchy for projects domestically as well as internationally.