On June 26th, 2021, our annual general meeting of the CHANCEN Ccooperative took place – for the second time in a digital format. After an interactive round of introductions in breakout rooms, CHANCEN eG board member Florian Kollewijn opened the meeting and gave a brief overview of current developments.
The main highlights from 2020: we were able to significantly increase the number of our partner universities (+30%) and students (+50%), around 60 grantees are already paying their ISA back to us and our CHANCEN tTeam keeps growing! We are also working on a great expansion of our offer: we are in talks with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to support in the future not only tuition fees at private universities but also the living costs of students at public educational institutions, thus making an even bigger contribution to equal opportunity and solidarity-based education funding. More details will follow soon!
There was also much to report from our subsidiary CHANCEN International: Batya Blankers, the Managing Director of CHANCEN International, presented the new leadership structure in Rwanda and explained how the non-profit has fared in the last pandemic year. CHANCEN International has been able to continue to provide good support to the more than 1,300 students it supports, despite the difficult situation, and has had a measurable positive impact on the educational and employment situation of its members and their families. It is particularly gratifying that work could be resumed on the Future of Work Fund, through which 10,000 students in sub-Saharan Africa are to be supported until 2023. Almost 75% of the fund’s $21 million volume has already been pledged by well-known partners!
The official opening of the General Assembly followed. The course of the 2020 fiscal year was presented and the Supervisory Board reported on its activities from the past year. After that, all members of the cooperative could take action! Both the coverage of the planned annual loss and the discharge of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board were approved. The meeting also re-elected Caspar-Fridolin Lorenz as a member of the Supervisory Board. Two amendments were made to the Articles of Association: The registered office of CHANCEN eG will be moved from Witten to Hamburg, and virtual general meetings will be included in the articles of association. In addition, the social committee of CHANCEN eG was elected for the first time. Liv Reinhold will represent the repayers in the future, and Kubrom Tzeggai and Hasan Güzel the students in the social committee.
We were very happy about all participants of the annual meeting! Thank you for shaping CHANCEN eG with us. See you next year!
