Foundation BNP Paribas Bulgaria and Sofia Municipality pledge support to socially underprivileged citizens

The Soup Kitchen Project, initiated by BNP Paribas S.A. - Sofia Branch’s employees, enters into its new season on December 1^st, 2010 until March 31^st, 2011. During the coming winter, 1,350 disadvantaged citizens of Sofia will benefit from a warm meal. In addition, 3 soup kitchen centers will open in the city of Varna, serving another 400 people. The charitable project is financed through the monthly donations of each employee of BNP Paribas Bulgaria, which are doubled by the Bank, and with the support of many partners.

The Soup Kitchen initiative is a remarkable success: the current total number of 1,750 meals per day over the entire winter period is 10 times bigger than at the beginning of the project. Numerous letters show the gratitude of the supported citizens and prove that BNP Paribas, Sofia Municipality, and large sponsors like International Women’s Club Sofia and many other partners together took the right direction. The project’s importance was also acknowledged by the Bulgarian business community: in November 2006, the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum awarded the Project Soup Kitchen a first prize in the category “Investor in Community” on the Annual Responsible Business Awards. In June 2009, the project received the BNP Paribas Innov@action award for Corporate Social Responsibility.

In order to formally consolidate and reinforce its longstanding engagement to development of corporate philanthropy programs in the country, BNP Paribas Bulgaria has launched a local foundation. The Foundation BNP Paribas Bulgaria was created in close cooperation with the BNP Paribas Foundation – the corner stone of the Group’s philanthropy initiatives for the past 25 years. The newly established entity will structure BNP Paribas’ projects in Bulgaria and strengthen current programs such as the Soup Kitchen – a charitable undertaking of BNP Paribas and Sofia Municipality which has been successfully helping disadvantaged people by providing warm meals during the cold winter months since 2002.

The aim of the newly created Foundation is to contribute to Bulgaria’s social and cultural development through such strong and long-term partnerships not only in the area of social inclusion, but also to expand to the fields of education, culture and environment.