Friendship Belgium
Friendship Belgium ASBL/VZW was founded in 2018 to support development and humanitarian aid programmes of Friendship in Bangladesh.
This support involves the mobilization in Belgium of financial and non-financial resources, at the private, corporate or institutional level, in favour of Friendship Bangladesh.
After Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, Friendship Belgium is the fifth European entity to join Friendship International, an international platform that allows Friendship Bangladesh to get closer to potential donors and offers a structure of support in terms of fundraising, human resources, exchange of know-how, best practice and technical assistance.
Together we work to create lasting solutions to the challenges faced by Bangladesh, especially those related to extreme poverty and climate change.
Our contribution
Friendship Belgium aims at mobilizing financial, human, and other resources to support and promote Friendship’s work for the poorest and most vulnerable people in Bangladesh.
In particular, Friendship Belgium is piloting an initiative called Blue Mangrove Fund based on Friendship’s mangrove afforestation program.
According to scientific researches and IPCC, mangroves are prime ecosystems to restore and protect. Mangroves are an efficient adaptation solution to climate change for local communities in the coastal belt of Bangladesh.
But mangroves also play a mitigation role since they capture 4 to 5 times more CO2 than other types of forests.
So, Blue Mangrove is a fund that will allow families to offset their CO2 emissions on the long term, at best cost, in full transparency, with an adaptation component for local communities and with an ecological return.
Nos actualités
Le conseil d’administration
Afin de remplir sa mission, l’association Friendship Luxembourg est dirigée par un Conseil d’Administration
HRH PRINCESS ESMERALDA OF BELGIUM, Chair
Actively engaged in the protection of the environment as well as women’s rights, Princess Esmeralda of Belgium is the President of the King Leopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation. She is also the Honorary President of Delphus, Patron of the Princess Lilian Cardiology Foundation and member of the board of the Virunga Belgium Foundation. She has also been over many years a global advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples and has participated in several campaigns to raise awareness of their cause.
PIERRE SCHMITZ, Secretary
Pierre Schmitz is active in the textile and import/export sector between Bangladesh and Europe. He has been traveling to Bangladesh since 1996 with 2 or 3 visits a year. Early on, he was involved in the development of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy for companies in the textile sector in Europe and Asia, and ensured the effective implementation of codes of conduct promoted by organizations such as BSCI, SA-8000, Sedex,… Pierre’s first contacts with Friendship date back to 1998-2000. He had the opportunity to live around 3 years in Bangladesh (2004-2008) during which he had the opportunity to strengthen his ties with Friendship by visiting several times the hospital ships and the Satellite Clinics on the Chars.
MARC ELVINGER, Member of the Board
Marc Elvinger (1960) is a lawyer and a member of the Luxembourg Bar since 1985. He has held the offices of chairman of the Young Bar Association of Luxembourg and member of the Bar Council. Marc has been active in the field of overseas cooperation within several NGOs since the early 1980s. In that context, he has been a member of the board and chairman of the platform of Luxembourg NGDOs and its representative on the NGDO Liaison Committee with the European Commission. He has also been a member of the board of the Foundation of Grand-Duke Henri et Grande-Duchesse Maria Teresa. In addition to being chairman of Friendship Luxembourg, Marc Elvinger is, along with Runa Khan, co-chairman of Friendship International.
RUNA KHAN, Member of the Board (Founder and Executive Director of Friendship)
Runa Khan is the Founder and Executive Director of Friendship. Friendship was founded drawing upon Runa Khan’s wide range of practical experiences of teaching, setting up small businesses, tourism, and communication among others. She is a published author with eight books, six on pedagogy and two on children’s stories. She is the Board Member of Global Dignity and Country Chair of Global Dignity Bangladesh and the Founder of Friendship International that is working in five European countries. Her work is based on simple logic, empathy, respect, deep sense of justice and innovation. She received several international awards and recognition, some of them being Ashoka, IDB, Schwab Foundation, Positive Planet and is the only Rolex Laureate from Bangladesh.
PAOLO PELLIZZARI, Member of the Board
Paolo Pellizzari is a photographer for 20 years and professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in the photography section of La Cambre. His work is shown in Museums and Art Galleries and he has already done many photos on Friendship and Bangladesh. Paolo is a member of several boards including Delvaux and Retviews. He previously ran a venture capital fund and worked for the Boston Consulting Group. Graduated from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) as an architectural engineer, he also got an MBA from INSEAD (Fontaineblau).
Johannes van der Klaauw, Member of the Board
Johannes van der Klaauw is a retired UNHCR and UN official since October 2023.
From early 2021 to his retirement, he was UNHCR’s Representative in Bangladesh where he led UNHCR’s response for the Rohingya refugees hosted in the country. He was also a Co-Chair of the Strategic Executive Group established by the United Nations to coordinate the humanitarian community’s response to the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Before coming to Bangladesh, he was the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator (DHC) for Mali since May 2019, where he was responsible for leading and coordinating the humanitarian response in the North and Centre of the country.
Johannes joined UNHCR in 1995 and has held a number of senior positions in the organisation. From 2017-2019, he was the UNHCR Regional Representative in the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) based in Tbilisi, Georgia. During the period July – December 2016, he was the UNHCR Representative a.i. in Canada.
Prior to this, between 2014 and mid-2016, he was the UNHCR Representative in Yemen, and during 2014 and 2015 he also was the Humanitarian Coordinator in this country.
Between 2010 and 2013, he served as Senior Resettlement Coordinator at UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva. He was also UNHCR’s Representative in Morocco between 2005 and 2010, and headed UNHCR’s office in Mashhad, Iran between 2003 and 2005. From 1995 until 2003, he served as UNHCR’s Senior Liaison Officer for the European Union institutions at its Brussels office.
Prior to joining UNHCR, he worked for Amnesty International, at its Dutch Section, from 1986-1989, and was it its Representative to the European Union in Brussels from 1990–1994.
Johannes has a Masters in Divinity/Comparative Religion and a Bachelors in Arts/Philosophy from Leyden University in the Netherlands.
Nicolas Delhauteur, Treasurer
Nicolas Delhauteur has worked in Belgium’s banking and insurance sector since 1995. He currently serves as a director of a bank branch and an insurance brokerage office in Waterloo. Following several trips to Bangladesh, he co-founded the association Helping Hand Belgium in 2009, focusing on education and healthcare for children in the Barisal region. He now also dedicates his time to Friendship, lending his expertise to the administrative management of the organization in Belgium.