Climate change is one of the defining crises of our time, fuelling natural disasters across the globe. Since its inception the Swarovski Foundation has acted to support those impacted by environmental crises, with grants to Shikshya Foundation Nepal following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal; to different branches of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement following the 2018 wildfires in Greece, the 2018 earthquake in Indonesia and the 2020 bushfires in Australia; to mothers2mothers following the 2023 cyclone in Mozambique; and to UK for UNHCR following the 2022 floods in Pakistan, the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, and the 2023 floods in Libya.

Inequalities connected to protected characteristics are on the rise around the world. In 2021, we supported organisations fighting for racial justice in the United States including the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund. We also partnered with WomanKind, which help survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual violence, and specialises in serving the Asian community.

The cost-of-living crisis has been impacting people worldwide, with rising energy prices, food bills and fuel costs forcing people to make impossible choices. In 2023, we supported four organisations working to reduce the impact of the crisis on people: Caritas Tirol, which supports people who can no longer afford heating, food, or housing in Tyrol, Austria; Magic Breakfast, which provide healthy breakfasts to young people in the UK who arrive at school too hungry to learn; the Trussel Trust, which supports a network of food bank centres in the UK; and Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for homeless families with children in the USA.

Public health crises are not only a threat to human life but they can also significantly disrupt economies. In 2014, the Swarovski Foundation supported the efforts of Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam to help stop the spread of Ebola across West Africa. In 2020, we also partnered with the United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency to support safe births and prevent mother and child mortality in Yemen, as well as their global campaign to end child marriage in 2021.

The number of people displaced globally has reached unprecedented numbers, driven by escalating violence and the consequences of the climate crisis. The Swarovski Foundation is committed to supporting displaced people, with donations to the British Red Cross Society in Bangladesh, Yemen, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank; Save the Children and Oxfam in Syria; and Women for Women International in Afghanistan. Since 2019, we have partnered with UK for UNHCR, responding to a number of their emergency appeals for Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye and Ukraine, as well as supporting their efforts towards underfunded crises that have fallen out of the spotlight in Iraq, South Sudan and Syria.