Inditex Is Contributing €2.5 Million to Help Médecins Sans Frontières

• The Group is earmarking €600,000 to healthcare and access to drinking water for refugees from the Rohingya community in Bangladesh.
• It is also collaborating with the organisation’s programme for the provision of medical care to migrants and vulnerable people in Mexico, with a €300,000 contribution.
• Lastly, it is contributing €1.6 million to MSF’s Emergency Desk and the funding of three of its regional teams, specifically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia.
• Since 2008, over 3.2 million people have benefitted directly from the more than €24 million Inditex has contributed through the ongoing framework collaboration agreement between the two parties.

The chairman and CEO of Inditex, Pablo Isla, the president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Spain, David Noguera, and the humanitarian organisation’s international president, Joanne Liu, today signed a new collaboration agreement at the retail group’s headquarters in Arteixo (La Coruña, Spain).

In doing so, Inditex has ratified its commitment to MSF’s medical, humanitarian, emergency and refugee relief work, to which it is earmarking €2.5 million for the year ahead. The Group’s contribution since 2008 amounts to €24 million.

Pablo Isla has underlined that “our collaboration with MSF is an essential part of our community engagement strategy that we have been working for the last 10 years to help people with a wide range of needs in many parts of the world, albeit with a strong focus on forced migration”. And he added that “it is a very important part of our social contribution and will continue to be so in the future”.

Inditex will continue to help the Rohingya community that has fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar. To this end, it is doubling last year’s contribution to €600,000; that money will go primarily to projects that bring healthcare and access to drinking water to the Rohingya refugees living in the camp known as Cox’s Bazar.

In parallel, in light of the growth in the number of people fleeing from the violence in Honduras, Salvador and Guatemala, the funds will support the provision of medical and mental health care in shelters along one of the routes crossing Mexico. Inditex is earmarking €300,000 to this cause.

The international president of MSF, Joanne Liu, has told that “at Médecins Sans Frontières we are proud and happy to have strong partnership with different sectors, including the private sector, and that is what is giving u sour agility to be there first and to care to the most in need”.

David Noguera remarked that “at MSF we take independent decisions depending on the needs we detect. We can do this thanks to the support of so many private sponsors and enterprises such as Inditex, which allow us to bring vital assistance to millions of people”.

Support for the Emergency Desk for the seventh year

For the seventh year, Inditex is also renewing its support for MSF’s Emergency Desk, which coordinates the distribution of medical supplies and humanitarian assistance in critical areas at times of maximum danger, with a contribution of €1.6 million. Half of this amount will be dedicated to regional units in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Ethiopia; these units monitor events on the ground continuously and are ready to intervene immediately in the areas presenting recurring problems.

Comprehensive assistance for refugees and internally displaced people

Inditex’s community investment centres around education, social wellbeing and humanitarian relief programmes, reflecting the company’s firm commitment to refugees and internally displaced people. It tackles this mission on several fronts. In addition to its longstanding collaboration with MSF, key initiatives include:

The On the Frontier in Colombia Programme, with Entreculturas and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS): this initiative is aimed at providing opportunities and support for the people displaced by armed conflicts in countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

The EPGO Project (Educate People, Generate Opportunities), the goal of which is to assist people in need of international protection; it encompasses forced migrants in countries such as Mexico and refugees who have had to abandon their countries, such as South Africa and the Lebanon.

The Chair for Refugees and Forced Migrants with Madrid’s Universidad Pontificia Comillas the aim of which is to deepen academic and applied research on refugees. The program has four components: researching refugee public policy and social integration programs, sponsoring postgraduate students in refugee regions to collaborate with refugee-support organisations, training students in the professional field of forced migration and refuge, and fostering greater public awareness of the refugee experience.

Inditex is a new member of the global network The Tent Partnership for Refugees. Tent works with the private sector to improve the lives and livelihoods of more than 25 million refugees forcibly displaced from their home countries. Over 100 companies, supporting refugees across 34 countries, are now members of the Tent Partnership. Tent was founded by Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani.