“Hëllef um Terrain.” A Luxembourgish name to describe the mission of the future non-profit association, currently being registered: the fight against everyday poverty. After the panic of the first few days and the still immense task of sorting everything out, at the instigation of Christian Billon and Tiphaine Gruny (PWC), a group of founders above suspicion decided to get together so as not to let down either the 20,000 people supported by Caritas in Luxembourg or the institution’s 350 employees.
Founding members
- Fondation Félix Chomé, named after the former director general and chairman of Arbed, set up in 1972 by Alice Chomé-Bastian to take in elderly people on modest incomes, without restriction, in accordance with a principle of political, religious, ideological and philosophical neutrality;
- Fondation La Luxembourgeoise , created at the end of 2012 in the ecosystem of La Luxembourgeoise to encourage, support, promote and develop academic and university life in the grand duchy of Luxembourg and abroad and chaired by Marie Anne Hansen-Pauly;
- Christian Billon, economic adviser, former secretary general of the Administration des biens du Grand-Duc et de la Cour grand-ducale, who has been working on the transition since the crisis began;
- Françoise Gillen, member of the board of directors of the Œuvre nationale de secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, assistant to the Ombudsman fir Kanner a Jugendlecher, specialising in children’s rights;
- , CEO of Foyer;
- , managing director of Brasserie Nationale, founder of the Fédération des jeunes dirigeants d'entreprise and the Cercle Munster, among others;
- , ombudsman, lawyer, former vice-president of the DP;
- Paul Mousel, founder and partner of Arendt & Medernach.
Other civil society players are invited to join this solidarity initiative, which will have no links with the entities affected by the crisis, or with the Caritas network. It is hoped that this will restore the serenity and confidence of donors and partners in the service of beneficiaries.
Governance will be defined by a general assembly of the founding members and a carefully selected board of directors.
Board of directors
The Board of Directors will be made up of:
- Christian Billon, who supported the previous entities as external advisor in the crisis situation;
- , who founded Hagen Advisory after more than 20 years as senior advisor to the Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF);
- Willy De Jong, managing director of , a group of charities founded by the nuns of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Elisabeth, working with children and adolescents (Anne asbl), education (Marie asbl), people with mental disabilities (Yolande asbl, Yolande Coop SIS and elisabeth4inclusion sàrl SIS) and the elderly (Claire asbl);
- , government councillor 1st class at the justice ministry, president of Initiativ Rëm Schaffen asbl;
- Pascal Rakovsky, independent director, former partner of PWC, member of the board of directors of Eurofins, member of the supervisory board of Alter Domus;
- Marisa Roberto, lawyer and managing partner of Lorang Roberto Komninos.
Other directors will be added to this list as and when Hëllef um Terrain is incorporated. Billon will be present on the board of directors in a transitional phase until Claudia Monti takes over at the end of her mission as ombudsperson in the first half of 2025.
Discussions are currently underway with the Luxembourg government about taking over the national agreements with this new entity, from 1 October.
This article was originally published in .