Fondation Saint-Luc
The operating area of Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc is equipped with seven optical microscopes, which are to be replaced by digital microscopes by 2025. The Saint-Luc Foundation, the reference for sponsorship at Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, is highly involved in fundraising for the acquisition of this equipment. GBL, a partner of la Fondation Saint-Luc, has supported this project by facilitating the acquisition of the first digital microscope dedicated to ophthalmologic surgery.
Digital microscopes represent a major technological advance. They allow for the improvement of the surgical act, the training of assistant specialists, the remote and interdisciplinary sharing of data, as well as the obtaining of electronic images that can be analyzed by computers, authorizing the integration of artificial intelligence and thus its development at Saint-Luc. The first procedures performed with this microscope started in September 2021.
By financing this digital microscope, GBL is actively participating in innovation, in terms of research, patient care and education.
Le Petit Vélo Jaune
Throughout Brussels, the nonprofit Le Petit Vélo Jaune offers support toward a reassuring family environment to future and new parents who are isolated, vulnerable and in a precarious situation. This accompaniment is organized in the form of meetings between a volunteer and a family. The pair meets every week for a few hours, over a period of approximately one year.
Faced with an accumulation of difficulties, some parents find themselves overwhelmed and discouraged. The volunteer provides support, whether it be for numerous administrative procedures, or psychologically, by lending an ear and becoming a resource on whom to rely. The volunteer also acts as a complementary link between families and various services and associations, which are sometimes difficult to access or unknown to parents.
In 2020, Le Petit Vélo Jaune wanted to extend the concept of solidarity support for families to allow parents in Wallonia to benefit from it too. The spin-off was born in order to share the association’s innovative and singular methods with new structures wishing to embark on the adventure.
The goal is to support the launch of two new structures per year, elsewhere in the country, i.e., a total of 12 structures and more than 550 accompanied families by 2026.
The support of donors, including GBL, has made it possible to support the establishment of the first three structures.
Toekomst Atelier de l'Avenir - TADA
In Brussels, TADA offers more than 1,500 socially vulnerable youths (and their entourage) a network that coaches them intensively for years. Through five weekend schools and an alumni network, TADA offers extracurricular activities where the (learning) bar is high, while also promoting the well-being of these young people.
At TADA’s weekend schools in Molenbeek, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Anderlecht and Schaarbeek, youth (10-14 years old) discover themselves and society thanks to enjoyable practical lessons from passionate professionals such as judges, nurses, cooks or mechanics.
Through an introduction to subjects such as law, medicine, mechanics, or even finance by GBL’s teams, these youth get a glimpse every Saturday for three years of what “later” has in store. In this way, they better understand the relevance of learning and “doing your best, for later” while developing themselves into motivated young people, fully motivated tolater contribute to our society.
GBL supports the antenna in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode so that TADA can coach even more children in the years to come – both during the three-year course in the weekend school and afterward in the alumni network.