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© Matthias Streibel
© Tatra banka, a.s.
Raiffeisen Bank International | Sustainability Report 2017
Another financial education project was made possible
by the cooperation of RBI AG with the social welfare
work Diakonie Austria, which is responsible for running
the Evangelisches Realgymnasium Donaustadt (ERG),
which is operated at the lower level as a Vienna Middle
School. The goals of this high school are to challenge
young people as individuals and to train them to
become self-aware, independent and socially
committed persons capable of actively shaping their
future. In the fourth grade, the students decide whether
to embark on a vocational training course or remain
in the university-preparatory secondary school
(Gymnasium). This point in time seems particularly
propitious for raising awareness of financial issues. In three fourth grade classes, RBI employees supported the
teachers with workshops as part of the independent studies phase on the financial topics of “Money and its
function in the economy”, “The monetary economy”, “Overview of payment methods” and “Forms of savings/
investments”. A total of around 60 students took part in the workshops.
In 2006 the H. Stepic CEE Charity was founded by
Dr. Herbert Stepic former Chief Executive Officer of
RBI AG. In particular, the association sponsors and
supports children and women in Central and Eastern
Europe who find themselves in social, financial or
health-related emergencies. Outside help is desperately
needed, especially in crisis regions such as eastern
Ukraine, but many rural areas in, for example, South-East Europe, continue to be characterized by abject poverty.
Because of its deep roots in Central and Eastern Europe and its pragmatic approach, the H. Stepic CEE Charity
positively influences the living conditions of the people it supports, offering them new perspectives.
Among other things, it provides children and adolescents with a home in a family-like environment, carries out
education projects for street children, or promotes the self-preservation ability of young people through access to
school and vocational training. All charity projects are carried out in collaboration with local or international partner
organizations. They are served by dedicated RBI employees in Vienna and at most Central and Eastern European
locations on a voluntary basis. This reduces administrative costs to a minimum, and all financial contributions flow
directly into the projects.
In 2017, the H. Stepic CEE Charity supported a total of 18 ongoing projects in nine Central and Eastern European
countries. These were primarily educational projects for street children and orphans as well as refugees. The
employees of Raiffeisen BANK dd Bosna i Hercegovina also supported the projects of the H. Stepic CEE Charity.
They visited socially disadvantaged families, single mothers and their children, who are housed in Ilijaš near
Sarajevo and brought them gifts.
The corporate volunteering program of Tatra banka,
a.s. in Slovakia offered employees the opportunity in
2017 to engage with four different initiatives – including
the project “Viac pre regióny” (More for regions), which
was carried out in cooperation with the non-profit
environmental organization Daphne and the Tatra
banka foundation.
The goal of the initiative is to promote the development
of regions, to build up relationships and to promote
cooperation with charitable organizations. The
collaboration was preceded by online voting by the
employees, who were able to vote for different kinds
of relief effort in each of the eight regions. Three rounds of voting were held to select the organizations to be