MTFI gets P1.4-m grant from Danish foundation

A PHILIPPINE non-government organization has received a €23,700 (P1.4-million) grant from Grundfos Foundation of Denmark, seen to dramatically boost its tree-planting activities in the country.

The Million Trees Foundation, Inc.  and Grundfos of Denmark sealed yesterday in Quezon City a memorandum of agreement embodying the donation and stronger collaboration between them.

MTFI president and executive director Melandrew Velasco and Grundfos country director Thomas Mikkelsen inked the MOA, witnessed by the Grundfos IS Support & Operation Team Manager Josephine De La Cerna and staff Kassandra Anne Carmesis, Justine Mislang, Adreian Villanueva and Jerome Dominic Atendido who made possible the grant approval.

Danish Paul Due Jensen founded Grundfos which eventually became the world’s leading pump company.

Jensen wanted to make sure that his company would continue to serve the best interest of society for many generations to come.

Thus, he transferred ownership of the company to the Grundfos Foundation (Poul Due Jensen Foundation).

According to Mikkelsen, the main purpose of the Grundfos Foundation is to ensure and support healthy economic growth and development, but it also donates funds to important philanthropic purposes.

“This project grant for Million Trees Foundation has been approved over projects from other places in the world. This means that our foundation committee thinks that this is a very worthwhile cause and that it goes very well together with our company values,” Mikkelsen said.

“I like very much that it is not just, as Mr. Mel Velasco emphasized earlier, we are not just planting the trees and then that’s it. No, it goes further than that. It’s thinking about how can we integrate this. We talked about the walking trail but also to integrate education. What we need to do is not just to fix the immediate problem, we need to change the mindset for the future. And the only way we can do that is by educating people,” he added.

He commended the overall efforts of the MTFI for serving as the lead NGO of the Annual Million Trees Challenge of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) that started the noble project in 2017 with partner