Social Banking

The husband was gone, the debts still there. Jutta faced her financial problems with the support of Zweite Sparkasse. Today she is debt free and happy again.

By 2060 Vienna will hold a share of 23% elderly people. Nowadays there is a great deal of ambiguity in society towards the attitude between the aged and youth: many people perceive a lack of understanding on both sides. The stereotype of old age is still wrongly related to dependency, sickness, loneliness and social isolation. What it takes to change this stereotype is an honest dialogue between the generations within the right environment.

Children may experience a range of emotional, psychological and physical problems and trauma as a result of being abused or neglected. They are more likely than others to have lack of self-esteem and distrust of adults, to be self-destructive or aggressive. In some cases this may lead to abuse of drugs or alcohol, or becoming young offenders or homeless.

Meet Ferdinand Raditsch Director of the Květné zahrady (Flower garden), an organization engaged in the provision of social services and work with vulnerable children and youth at-risk.

Beside the good times in life, there are also bad times. The Stoian family has faced them both. But they have never given up fighting, knowing that they have each other and their family by their side and can overcome any obstacle as long as they are together.

BCR Social banking over-indebted advisory is dedicated to supporting and educating financially distressed families and individuals to improve their money management skills. Thus it is empowering and helping them to achieve financial stability step-by-step.

The Housing Project for socially excluded in Slovakia aims to enable and empower people from the Roma community to build their own houses by providing them access to tailor-made purpose loans. An important part of this project is the financial literacy training and mentoring; to become eligible for the financing families have to build savings for one year. During this time they also get building skills training, so that they can be able to build the house by themselves. Meet Adriana and Igor and find out why they decided to join this project and how challenging it is to change stereotypes.

Marko Ristovski is an owner of the Eco-hostel "Republik” in Uzice, Serbia. He is developing his sustainable business idea with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. “At first, not many people believed in my idea. Yet, in the end, I succeeded - we are now, opening our second hostel!” Watch the video and see how he is contributing to the community and the development of the tourism in his own town.

Maria Căşmăşan lives in Leurda with her husband Ioan and her children Raul and Raluca. They have a flock of sheep counting 500 heads from which they produce lamb meat, milk and cheese. “Originally we’ve started the business to raise money to move to the city. Meanwhile we decided to finish our house, arrange a nice place here and have a decent, quiet living. Watch her story and find out why.

Erzsi Szekeres is mother of a disabled boy and founder of Rehabilitation centre in Csömör. Thirty years ago it was the first non-profit organisation in Hungary. Back then, even the experts did not believe that disabled people can work. Learn more about her personal story and how she established not only a working place, but also a home and family environment for these people.

“I have always wanted to start my own company”, says Silvija Celjak, a young innovative woman producing baby clothes and accessories out of organic cotton and bamboo fabric that is a novelty on the Croatian market.  “Believe in yourself! Never give up on your dreams, you have to be persistent and fight for what you want!" Watch her entrepreneurial story and find out more about her motivation.