Our PROUD value of Pioneering our Future calls on us to take a long-term view and support those who will make up the society, and our stakeholders, of tomorrow. In 2009, we launched the Thomas Cook Children's Charity to make dreams come true for sick and disadvantaged children wherever we work.

The charity's running costs are covered by Thomas Cook UK, so all donations received go directly towards helping children. When customers book a holiday, we ask if they would like to make a donation. We also collect unwanted currency from them on their return flight to the UK. Employees, too, have held various fundraising events. We are thrilled that, through these various routes, we raised £1,015,783 in 2009/10, exceeding our target of £900,000.

Applications for funding can be made by customers or employees, or directly by children's charities, although we prioritise those that come from our own customers and employees. All applications are reviewed at the monthly meetings of the charity's Appeals Committee. The charity's Board of Trustees includes our Group Chief Executive Officer, five employees, an NHS advisor and a young person whose life was saved at the King's College Hospital in London (home to the Children's Critical Care Centre which was built with money raised by Thomas Cook Group's customers and employees).

Funding is given to a wide range of individuals and organisations, supporting children from birth to 18 years, both in the UK and worldwide. Some examples from 2009/10 are:

• In Kenya, we supported a programme that provides cataract treatment and ongoing support to visually impaired children
• Some children staying in hospices are not well enough to travel on holiday. Instead, we can provide fun and help them to escape from the reality of their illnesses by giving them the opportunity to fly a virtual plane, taking themselves on holiday anywhere in the world they choose. Ten children's hospices across the UK received high-specification computers with wide HD screens and flight simulator software installed
• The abandoned children living in the streets of Goa now have better access to medical, psychological and social care thanks to our funding of a cottage hospital
• In Cancun, Mexico, we funded the construction of a kindergarten for disadvantaged children. The building included toilets and running water – facilities that the children had not had before.

The charity also has two main partners in the UK: Happy Days Children's Charity and CHICKS (Country Holidays for Inner City Kids). Through Happy Days we enabled more than 2,000 sick and disadvantaged children to go on a day trip or holiday. For CHICKS, we purchased two minibuses and its team is currently identifying a site for a third centre which we will provide funding towards. In the meantime, the Children's Charity has also pledged £100,000 towards CHICKS camps in 2011.

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