For many years Soneva has contributed considerable resources to charitable causes. In order to a get a clearer and more transparent process The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust was established in November 2010. It is a registered charity in the UK with registration number 1138811. Additionally a sub-branch in Thailand was registered with registration number Kor.Tor. 2071.
The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust primarily handles the following funds:
Carbon Sense Fund - Established to mitigate emissions that cannot be controlled, such as guest flights. Two per cent of Soneva revenue is invested into carbon mitigation projects.
- Darfur Stoves Project – The Trust will provide USD $660,000 of development funding to Impact Carbon and Potential Energy that will provide energy efficient cook stoves and water treatment systems to 150,000 families in Darfur, Sudan. The use of these household technologies will improve health by reducing indoor air pollution and providing safe drinking water to the thousands of families that the project will reach. The project addresses the pressing problem of fuel scarcity that forces women in Darfur to risk sexual assault and violence by venturing far from the refugee camps into unprotected areas to forage for firewood.
- Forest Restoration - The Trust has partnered with the PATT Foundation to plant over 400,000 trees in the Chiang Mai region of northern Thailand. The project will mitigate an estimated 320,000 tons of CO2 by replanting 400 acres of forest. Between 20-30 different species of tree will be planted.
- Wind Turbine – Working with The Converging World ,The Soneva Group has provided USD $1.7 million to fund a 1.5mw wind mill in Tamil Nadu in India. Part of the revenue generated from the electricity will go to local community projects.
Clean Water Projects – Globally nearly a billion people lack access to clean drinking water and 2.5 billion lack access to basic sanitation services. The Soneva Group has funded over 475 project in 52 countries worldwide helping over 600,000 people get access to either clean drinking water or basic sanitation services.
Social & Environmental Responsibility Fund (SERF) - Created to provide funding for a wide variety of humanitarian and environmental projects. Our resorts contribute 0.5% of total revenue to SERF, 60% of which is spent locally by the resorts and 40% on global projects through The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust. SERF projects take place all over the world and bring much needed support to developing communities in the form of medical, educational and ecological care. In-depth information is available upon request.
Care for Children – Supported since 2006 through in-room sales of soft toy animals. Care for Children, a registered charity in the UK, exists to relieve hardship, distress and sickness in abandoned and orphaned children in China by the introduction of strategic initiatives in child care practice in cooperation with Chinese authorities. The goal is to place one million children in foster homes. It was estimated that 250,000 orphaned children had found foster homes by January 2011 and Care for Children had trained staff from over 200 orphanages.
Restaurants Against Hunger - A campaign by Action Against Hunger, a UK registered charity committed to ending child hunger. Recognised as a leader in the fight against malnutrition, Action Against Hunger saves the lives of malnourished children while providing communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger in over 40 countries benefitting five million people each year. We started to support Restaurants Against Hunger in 2008 and have gradually increased our contribution. Funds are raised through guest donations of USD 50 cents from main dishes at Soneva resorts.
Soneva Green School Scholarship –The Trust will grant annually a one year sponsorship at Green School in Bali, Indonesia. Green School is the leading model of sustainability in education, developing young thinkers and innovators that can bring new perspectives and models of change to their communities. The first student to benefit will be starting in August 2012 in the second grade, her name is Titra.
In addition The Soneva Group also supports The Blue Marine Foundation - a charitable organization that researches & develops funding structures that will allow for long-term marine conservation that benefits local fishermen & their communities without being an unsustainable burden upon governments. The Blue Marine Foundation enabled the creation of the largest existing marine reserve in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It intends to increase marine reserves from 1% of the ocean to 10%, in the next ten years. Soneva Resorts supports this initiative as an extension of its own work, local to its resorts. www.bluemarinefoundation.com
In-depth information on all the above projects is available upon request from arnfinn@soneva.com