PRESS RELEASE
Help for SOS Children’s Villages to evacuate families from the war zone
The OLYMP-BEZNER-STIFTUNG in Bietigheim-Bissingen (district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) spontaneously provides 20,000 euros for the support of refugee children and families from the Ukraine through the SOS Children’s Village.
Mark Bezner, co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the OLYMP-BEZNER-STIFTUNG, is deeply dismayed and therefore explains: “We are completely stunned and shocked by the terrible scenes that are currently taking place in the middle of Europe. We feel for the Ukrainian people and their terrible fate. We at OLYMP Bezner KG expressly support all of the economic sanctions that have been imposed on Russia to date and that are additionally necessary and, as a company, fully support them. In addition, we have decided to help directly and, in line with the purpose of the foundation, to provide an amount of 20,000 euros via the OLYMP-BEZNER-STIFTUNG for the support of refugee children and families from Ukraine through the aid organization SOS Children’s Villages.”
The SOS Children’s Villages e. V., Munich, is an independent, non-governmental and non-denominational aid organization that works globally for children. In cooperation with the partner organizations, an emergency aid program for children in care and families in western Ukraine was started immediately after the start of the war. The SOS Children’s Villages in western Ukraine are currently being evacuated along with their families to neighboring Poland. The first families from the SOS Children’s Villages in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions have already arrived safely and are being accommodated in the Polish SOS Children’s Villages programs. The urgently needed donations will be used to evacuate children and families, provide emergency shelter, medicine and hygiene items, provide food, and provide psychological and medical care. SOS Children’s Village Ukraine is preparing humanitarian aid for at least 15,000 people. Depending on how the situation develops, the measures should be extended or affected families given long-term support.
Over the decades, OLYMP Bezner KG has succeeded in expanding its sales network in Russia and the Ukraine to several hundred commercial customers through consistent market development. There are also seven monobrand stores that are operated under license in the Moscow area. With the brands OLYMP and OLYMP SIGNATURE, the clothing specialist was regularly present at the renowned fashion fair Collection Premiere Moscow (CPM). In 2019, sales in both countries were still in the higher single-digit million euro range. The willingness of the specialist trade to order, which had been severely impaired over a longer period of time due to the virus, had recently increased significantly again. Encouraging incoming orders were already being recorded again for the 2022 autumn season. Mark Bezner makes it clear: “The quite considerable loss of sales for our company is completely insignificant and irrelevant compared to the immeasurable suffering that the war brings to the people there.”
The OLYMP-BEZNER-STIFTUNG, which was founded in 2008 by the Eberhard, Birgit and Mark Bezner family and has a share capital of one million euros, has made a name for itself with its commitment to numerous projects for children and young people in Baden-Württemberg, Germany and around the world often proven positive.
Contact: Marc Fritz, phone +49 7142 592-170, fax +49 7142 592-8170, [email protected], www.olymp.com