Dunya firmly believes that corporate social responsibility entails that any business venture be accomodated by a genuine concern and commitment with regard to the social environment in which it operates. And because Dunya does not want these to be mere nice and attractive words written somewhere in a postscript to our mission statement and corporate values, we deem it necessary to not just talk, but act. One needs to walk the talk. Res, non verba!

Click here to learn how Dunya uses HRCA.
 

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS  Dunya is an active and committed member of KAURI, the Belgian Meeting Point for Global Sustainable Action. At Kauri, we make extensive use of networking opportunities with fellow believers in sustainable business standards, we volunteer to present workshops on intercultural management and diversity management, and we frequently represent the Cultural Diversity point of view at stakeholder meetings, both at profit sector companies and NGOs. Moreover, our headquarters at Bayt al-Andalus host Kauri events on a variety of topics on a regular basis.

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT  For many years, Francis Laleman, one of the Dunya founding fathers, has been involved with Jeevan Deep, a series of education and community development programs for the Dalit (Untouchable) and Scheduled Castes communities in Gaya District, Bihar, India. In order to be able to maintain these programs, in 2004, he was joined by Jerry Meuris and a group of students and friends, who together set up the Anand Society, an informal fund raising group in Belgium. Lately, this informal group has been transformed into an official registered charitable trust according to Belgian Law. The statutory committee consists of Rene Geybels (president), Francis Laleman (vice-president), Jerry Meuris (finance administrator), Eddy Van Hemelrijck (secretary) and Koen Dierckx.

Jeevan Deep solely depends on Anand vzw for its finances. Next to a small group of residential well-wishers, Beyond Borders, Dunya and its subsidiary India Business Support are structurally transferring funds to the project, and we are inviting our clients to help us out.

Doing business abroad is fine indeed. But we just have to realize that the chasm between the well-to-do Middle Class, to which our business counterparts belong, and the underprivileged, is growing in all corners of the world, and is nowhere as deep and forbidding as in India. Indian and international polity makers are well aware of this problem, and they do everything in their power to change the abysmal feat of the poor and introduce structural changes in Indian society - but in the mean time millions of people are still locked up in a poverty trap and their needs are really urgent.

The distance between the two pictures on the left, is less than 500 metres. We know, it seems odd, but it is true. This is why we cannot stand aside and watch. We just need to do something, if only to provide a firm ethical basis to our doing business abroad, and with India in particular. Therefore, Dunya invites its clients to join us. There are many ways in which this can be done, some of which are suggested here.  

 

You can help us bridge the gap, and ensure that the children on the left picture, one day, might be the business partners of your own sons and daughters.