Unicef/CfC projects in Peru, China, the Philippines, Ethiopia and India will each receive a donation of €1,000 from the ING matters editorial desk. The choice was made by five ING employees who answered on a global ING matters reader survey last year.

Ricardo Rivero of ING Fondos in Peru opted for the ‘Sol Naciento’ (Sunrise) organization, which works for children from poor families in a deprived area of the capital city Lima. The children will receive education and daily meals. The money will contribute towards the costs of building a new school.

Weidong Yang of ING Life Japan plans to donate €1,000 to the ‘School which provides Hope’, a small rural school in the Chinese province of Qinghai. The school offers lessons and meals for around 200 children from the poorest families. €1,000 is a very large amount of money for the school, when you realize that €10 is enough to send a child to school for a year and the same amount buys a child a proper hot meal every week.

Nicole Denise Ramiro of ING Bank Manila Philippines allocated her €1,000 to ING Village. This lies in the Baseco district of Manila, which was devastated by an enormous fire some years ago. Hundreds of homes went up in flames. Together with the non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity, ING Wholesale Banking Asia is working to build new homes for all those affected, with ING staff assisting with the manual labor. An ING Community Center is also being built, and will carry out a number of projects, such as schooling for children and vocational training for adults.

Edwin Buddenberg of Nationale-Nederlanden in the Netherlands donated his €1,000 to the Unicef project in India. Thanks to ING and Unicef, 15,000 children in the southern province of Tamil Nadu can have schooling instead of having to work. Teachers will also receive better training, teaching materials will be provided and school buildings will be renovated.

Hilde Smet of ING Belgium is giving her €1,000 to a Unicef project in Ethiopia. In the Afar region in the North East of Ethiopia, Unicef has set up schools for children of nomad families who continually travel around with their cattle. In 2008, there will be a total of 150 schools spread across the region, with all the necessary teaching materials. In all, 7,500 children will then be able to enjoy education for the first time in their lives.