Ahead of the D&C Awards 2023 which will be held in the National Museum of Serbia on April 3, we spoke with our previous winners. MK Group was last year’s recipient of the award for the best socially responsible company. Check out what Aleksandra Stojanović, MK Group’s Corporate Affairs Director had to say about their experience and their new plans.
How much did the award you received mean to you?
This award was a great prelude to everything we are preparing and expecting this year. Our internal Family Support program has grown into an external one, and we are happy that its strength has been recognized and rewarded by Diplomacy & Commerce magazine. After a large number of successfully implemented activities with the aim of improving society as a whole, especially aimed at young people and families, I can freely say that socially responsible business has become the trademark and strategic determination of MK Group. As laureates of the most eminent awards in the field of CSR, we have a great responsibility to work even harder in the future in order to serve as a true example with our leadership position and motivate others to follow us on our path to “the best socially responsible company in Serbia”.
What has your company been doing in that field since then?
On an annual level, the company MK Group allocates an amount of one million euros per year for the realization of socially responsible projects, and takes care of all the local communities in which it operates. With continuous and long-term investment, we influence the solution of numerous social challenges, with a special focus on youth and family care. The “Family Support” program has been in existence since 2017, within the framework of which monetary subsidies are awarded to all employees who succeed in the role of parents. In six years of existence, with this program we have supported more than 790 families and 1,300 babies with a total sum of 400 thousand euros. The external extension of the project initiated the realization of donations to maternity hospitals in 5 countries of the region where MK Group operates. Donations with a total value of 700,000 euros were received by maternity hospitals in Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What are your plans for the future?
Our activities in the coming period will also be focused on youth care and family support, both in Serbia and in the entire Adriatic region, where we employ 4,000 people. Proud of the successes we have achieved, we are going one step further and in the year in which we are celebrating 40 years of successful business thanks to new, impressive projects, we are celebrating the future. The best way to start the year of celebration is by giving gifts to our youngest. Through the continuation of the “Family Support” project, this year we will donate a total of one million euros. The focus will be on donations to kindergartens in the entire Adriatic region, for which we allocated 600,000 euros, and on this occasion we also held a meeting at the Government of the Republic of Serbia this week. There is also support for the SOS Children’s Village prepared by the Maternity Home within the Program for Mothers and Babies in Kraljevo and assistance to the work of the Center for Family Support in Raška and Niš. In addition, we are happy that this year we are continuing the organization of winter holidays for children from Kosovo and Metohija in our Grand Hotel on Kopaonik. There are many reasons to celebrate, and I am proud that thanks to our donations, the children of our region will feel the greatest joy, because the future of all of us is in their hands. This is not all, because the best is yet to come.
