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Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

The Smurfit Westrock Foundation is deeply committed to supporting the local communities in countries where Smurfit Westrock operates. View a snapshot of the projects we have undertaken below, all of which align with one of our focus UN SDGs, "Quality Education".

We would like to acknowledge that whilst these projects are aligned to our focus UN SDG of Quality Education, many also contribute to other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Quality education 

Supporting Ukraine
With a direct donation from the Smurfit Westrock Foundation and fundraising initiatives by colleagues, the Group contributed nearly €2.4 million to support local initiatives. This included relocating and providing accommodation for our Ukrainian colleagues. The collective efforts of Smurfit Westrock employees worldwide benefited 213,136 Ukrainians.
Ukraine Support
Casita del Nino
Casita del Nino ‘Rincon del Sol’
The Smurfit Westrock Foundation aided the construction of a new headquarters for Casita del Niño 'Rincón del Sol' in Sunchales. This 586-square-meter facility offers comfortable and well-equipped spaces for meals, education, recreation, and fostering family and community networks. It serves to support vulnerable children, enhancing their resources and skills.
Casita del Nino
The Smurfit Westrock Pirapetinga Child Care Center ‐ Brazil
The Smurfit Westrock Pirapetinga Child Care Centre aims to attend to the children in the community, from 4 months to 5 years old. The infrastructure of the care centre needed to be repaired, and equipped to continue offering quality education in safe and adequate spaces. Our donation of US$250,000 enabled this work to be completed.
school children
Little School opening El Salvador
Fundacion Rotaria de Nuevo Laredo A.C. ‐ Mexico
15 minutes from our plant in Nuevo Laredo Tamaulipa Mexico, Arturo de Luna Menchaca Elementary School required a new multifunctional auditorium to be built. With a US$160,000 donation from The Smurfit Westrock Foundation, the auditorium was built to provide additional facilities for the children.
Little School opening El Salvador
EL Colegio - El Salvador
El Colegio offers kindergarten education to over 600 children from the community that surrounds Smurfit Westrocks´s operation in San Salvador. The Smurfit Westrock Foundation donated a total of US$139,000 to help improve education quality, infrastructure, teacher training and school equipment.
School children
school classroom
Obcianske Zdruzenie Pre Nase Detigyermk – Slovakia
A school in Sturovo, required our support with the upgrade of the classroom. A donation of €21,000 from Smurfit Westrock Foundation helped fund the upgrade of the classroom itself to a more modern look as well as improved technology for all the children attending, some of whom have relations working in the Smurfit Westrock plant nearby.
school classroom
Proyecto DUO – Colombia
Proyecto DUO is a safe environment for 180 children from disadvantaged areas that provides provides after school academic support, meals, basic health checks and much more. Our donation of US$15,000 helped to fund a project to improve classroom conditions, providing them with adequate furniture, storage space and whiteboards to aid the teachers.
Group of school children
Early Learning Ireland
Early Learning Institute (ELI) – Ireland
ELI provides educational support programmes at each stage of a child’s journey, all of which support children and their families to develop the skills and knowledge needed to achieve their educational and life goals. €15,000 was donated to ELI to help fund over 10 Ukrainian families on the Home from Home programme for families living in emergency accommodation in Dublin.
Early Learning Ireland
Ambitious about Autism – UK
Ambitious about Autism received £59,318 in funding from the Foundation to transform the outdoor learning space in their Treehouse school. This area helps improve the mental and physical wellbeing of their pupils, creating a multi-sensory outdoor learning experience that would support language development, motor skills and social interaction.
Treehouse School for Autism
Children reading
Dublin Neurological Institute – Ireland
This charity helps to increase access to high quality care for people with a neurological disease. With the help of a €10,000 donation from the Foundation, they produced a book for children to help them to learn about the brain as they attend appointments explaining how important each part of the brain is and what it does.
Children reading
Elementary School Zebrak – Czech Republic
The children attending this school in Zebrak suffer from mental and physical disorders from light to severe levels. We donated over €27,000 to the school to install a Snoezelen, which is a multisensory environment for relaxation and calming down. This specially adapted room helps the senses of children via lights, music, surfaces and other stimuli.
Sensory room
Child in school
Early Learning Initiative (ELI) – Ireland
The Early learning institute is a community based educational initiative addressing educational disadvantage. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, ELI’s programmes pivoted to online delivery to encourage ongoing education. Our donation of €16,000 helped support the ongoing delivery of their Home Visiting Programmes as well as funding for laptops, play mats and books.
Child in school
FEPADE – El Salvador
FEPADE is a charity which helps promote educational development in El Salvador. The Project consists of sponsoring a local school by improving infrastructure. Our donation of US$115,000 was used for structural work which will include construction of a dining room for 100 students, refurbishment of a recreation area and replacement of the roof and water gutter.
woman on stage
School classroom
Peter McVerry Trust – Ireland
The Peter McVerry Trust is a national housing and homeless charity in Ireland. Their primary focus is to help move families out of homelessness, while providing positive environments to mitigate against the impacts of homelessness. A donation of €13,000 was made by the Foundation to provide a library of resources and school supplies for the young people they support.
School classroom
Casa del Niño - Argentina
Casa del Niño is a not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to provide help and support to children’s education in a healthy space. A donation of €100,000 was made by the Smurfit Westrock Foundation to help with the construction of a new building for the school as well as the purchase of the required materials, windows, roof, plumbing, electrics and painting associated with it.
School classroom
Children with Art supplies
Agro-Technical School - Venezuela
The Venezuela school project was funded by Smurfit Westrock Foundation with a donation of US$137,000. This funding allowed for the continued support of the running of a local school that had previously been the beneficiary of support from SK Venezuela.
Children with Art supplies
Kingsley Special Academy – UK
Kingsley is a special needs school that caters for children of primary school age with a wide range of needs including ASD, complex medical, sensory impairments and learning difficulties. With the help of a €38,500 donation, they were able to build an outdoor classroom with sensory, wheelchair accessible pathways along with planted trees and polytunnels.
Sensory play
Children in costume
San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries (SAMM)– USA
SAMM’s provides specific assistance to families in their Transitional Living and Learning Centre through the Children’s Enrichment Facility. Our donation of US$116,000 made it possible for infrastructure improvements to be made to their facility, supporting an additional 64 children of school and toddler age.
Children in costume
Agricultural and Forestry Technical Institutes ITAFs – Colombia
An Agricultural institute in Colombia required an additional 600 tablets to strengthen the capacities in the management of technological tools and virtual education platforms. The Smurfit Westrock Foundation made a donation of €65,000 to help fund this project.
Farmer with tablet

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