Somerset, NJ March 9 – The William Demant Foundation has announced plans to donate DKK 8 million ($1.2 million USD) to support humanitarian aid in and outside the Ukraine to meet the growing needs of children and families, including those on the move. The Foundation has allocated DKK 7 million ($1 million USD) to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which is scaling up emergency response across the Ukraine and the wider region. The Foundation has designated the remaining DKK 1 million ($150,000 USD) for Demant employees to support the relief initiatives of established, officially recognized humanitarian organizations located predominately in the Ukraine and Poland.
“At Demant, our focus is on people affected by the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Ukraine,” said Gary Rosenblum, President of Oticon, Inc., a Demant business. “We will do our utmost to help children and families, and we are proud that our majority owner, William Demant Foundation, is donating DKK 8 million to international relief initiatives.”
UNICEF will allocate the funds from the Foundation where they are most needed in and outside the borders of the Ukraine. This includes such activities as ensuring supplies of safe water and sanitation kits, establishing local mobile health teams to provide critical support and medical stock to ensure continuous health services provision.
In 2021, William Demant Foundation donated DKK 3.5 million (half a million USD) to UNICEF’s COVID-19 response, establishing a solid foundation for further cooperation. UNICEF has presence inside the Ukraine and around its borders where the humanitarian group has set up emergency centers for the families in need. UNICEF is working in close liaison with Ukrainian authorities, UN partners and other agencies to prepare and respond in this incredibly complex and rapidly developing situation.
William Demant Foundation is the majority shareholder of Demant and a charitable business foundation whose main purpose is to give back to society in the form of philanthropic donations and to secure and expand the commercial activities of the Demant Group. The Foundation’s donations are based on the profit of Demant.
