Hedwig and Robert Samuel Foundation
The Hedwig and Robert Samuel Foundation has been supporting children and young people in the field of education for over 20 years, primarily in countries in Central America and South Asia. The young people all come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and receive the necessary funds and access to qualified vocational training through the foundation . The foundation has around 90 employees worldwide.
history
The foundation goes back to the Düsseldorf couple Robert and Hedwig Samuel. The Jewish merchant Robert Samuel, born in Düsseldorf in 1871, was active in the import and sale of tobacco products and, among other things, supplied the Württemberg royal court . In 1927, Samuel determined the establishment of the foundation in his will. After the death of the spouses who remained childless, the foundation was to serve charitable purposes. He brought the Hohenzollernhaus, Königsallee 14 into the foundation as a financial basis .
After Robert Samuel's death in January 1931, the foundation was established on June 3, 1932 with the approval of the Prussian Ministry of Justice. In the period that followed, authorities and National Socialist organizations tried to gain access to the supposedly Jewish assets. The state organs blocked each other, and since the purpose of the foundation was wisely not limited to Jewish people, the foundation happily outlived the Third Reich.
Since the income from the foundation's capital went to co-founder Hedwig Samuel for the rest of his life, several years passed before the foundation started its actual charitable activity in 1976. The funds that the Samuel Foundation then received as income from assets were initially mainly needed for the urgently needed renovation of the office building on Königsallee, which had been badly damaged by a fire bomb in 1942. The realization of the foundation's purpose had to lag behind during this time. However, even in this phase, small donations were made for social projects, mostly for those in Düsseldorf.
Later, with the completion of the maintenance measures and the establishment of its own infrastructure, the Samuel Foundation was able to support larger projects. The first donations for improvement measures in the urban retirement homes Gallberg and Flehe were followed by aid for the socially disadvantaged. For example, a care measure was carried out for the children in the container housing complex on Schmiedestrasse in Oberbilk , the infrastructure in a homeless shelter in the city was improved and the homework supervision for children of foreign co-residents was financed. All measures for which there were no budgetary obligations on the part of the city and which would not have been possible without the support of the Samuel Foundation.
In the mid-1980s, the Samuel Foundation expanded its aid for those in need abroad for the first time. Driven by the increasingly obvious poverty in the underdeveloped countries of the world, the Samuel Foundation has increasingly concentrated its work on these countries over the years. Initial donations to development aid organizations such as the organization Menschen für Menschen or the Friedensdorf International were followed by direct aid to people and institutions in developing countries.
Instead of the pure funding of external projects, the realization of long-term aid projects on site soon took place. In a relatively short period of time, foreign representations were established in Costa Rica in 1987 , in Nicaragua in 1989 , in India in 1993 and in Thailand in 2002 .
The Foundation
The Samuel Foundation is a non-profit foundation under private law with a focus on promoting training. Its headquarters are in Düsseldorf. In contrast to many other foundations, the Samuel Foundation is operational. This means that it not only finances other aid organizations, but also initiates and realizes its own charitable projects, primarily in Central America (Costa Rica and Nicaragua) and Asia (India and Thailand). These aid projects are financed through the foundation's capital, donations and co-financing. It is ensured that all available funds flow into projects that correspond to the goals, funding priorities and quality requirements.
aims
The Samuel Foundation is "The Foundation for Education". Their goal: The urgently needed further development of the poorer countries is accelerated and the plight of the people alleviated through the professional qualification of broad sections of the population. The foundation's work focuses on children and young people. Because only through them can the vicious circle of poverty and lack of prospects be broken sustainably.
The Samuel Foundation wants to put poor and socially needy people in a position to improve their living conditions sustainably and on their own. The approach of their foundation activity is to help people help themselves. Because a development can only grow out of itself. Personally and socially. The Samuel Foundation has focused on the funding area of training. Because training offers the most important lever for personal and social development.
Foundation capital
In addition to donations, the projects are primarily financed from rental and investment income from the "Hohenzollernhaus". The 6-storey house with a row of shops is located on the renowned Königsallee in Düsseldorf and, in addition to the headquarters of the foundation, also houses the jeweler Wempe, the clothing manufacturer Tom Tailor and the office space service provider World-Wide Business Centers.
The house was bought by Robert Samuel in 1907. After the renovation by the renowned architect Hermann vom Endt , the cigar importer Robert Samuel used the house for the storage and sale of cigars as well as for office space. The name of the house probably originated from the activity of Robert Samuel as purveyor to the court of the Württemberg royal house of the Hohenzollern .
Destroyed by an incendiary bomb during World War II, the Hohenzollern House was gradually renovated and expanded after the war. Since the complete renovation and reconstruction of the historic roof in the early 1980s, the Hohenzollern House has formed the most important financial basis for the foundation's activities.
Aid projects
The Samuel Foundation enables children and young people to receive qualified professional training and qualifications. Support is given to children and young people who come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and who have certain requirements that promise success. The training courses are free and some also include meals during the day and transport costs.
The training system follows the principle of "support and challenge". Therefore, the young people interested in funding must have a certain level of schooling, personality and family support in addition to their need. During their apprenticeship, young people are expected to achieve above-average performance and commitment. This is the only way for young people to assert themselves in the labor market later on.
All training offers are aimed at manual, technical or service occupations, as these can also be learned without higher education. They can be imparted quickly and practically and have a long-term high demand in the countries. Only in Thailand was an exception made, because due to the rural structures of the area of activity, general schooling offers the best development prospects for young people.
In addition to the focus on training, the Samuel Foundation supports individual projects that it became aware of in the course of its foundation work. She has been supporting the El Tepeyac health post in Nicaragua since 1990. It is also active in the neighboring country of Costa Rica with another project: In San Isidro, in cooperation with the responsible authority PANI, it maintains two children's homes (albergues), in which children who have suffered violence find refuge in family-like conditions. In Germany she is the founder and co-partner of the organization KiD gGmbH, an inpatient specialist facility for abused children in Düsseldorf. The foundation also supports young students at the Düsseldorf Art Academy on a regular basis .
Over 3,900 young people have successfully completed the training programs so far. Up to 90 percent of the Samuel trainees have found a qualified job in their field 3 months after graduation.