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Trestle Group Foundation

Introducing the Trestle Group Foundation Bangladesh Project

The Trestle Group Foundation was formed by the Trestle Group to support economic change throuigh a social philanthropic project. As the president of an international outsourcing company Ralph Schonenbach spent a large percentage of his time assisting talented individuals who wanted to create companies that would allow them to join the global economy. They had a sincere desire to create economic opportunity to their community. What they needed was equipment, legal and financial support, and business development consulting to support guide them through the challenges of moving from a third world infra structure to becoming a competitive participant in the global economy. After realizing that his efforts had tremendously positive results that warranted a focused and concentrated effort he agreed with his advisors that a non-profit company could better serve the needs and address the challenges in 2005 he started the Trestle Group Foundation and brought on Dana B. Smith as the very capable executive director. Together with a volunteer advisory board the first project was conceived and the Luna Project was started.

In 2006 Addleshaw Goddard developed a relationship with the Trestle Group Foundation, followed by support of UBS, Microsoft, and the other supporters. Now the Trestle Group Foundation has proven that their efforts yield tangible results. The challenges of economic development are great and the reward are greater. We invite companies to learn about sponsorship opportunities, and how to become invovled the current projects and the new projects which are targeting young enterprises in Eastern Europe. Economic self sufficiency is the most effective way to solve problems of lack of poverty, hunger, lack of education, health and community development. The Trestle Group Foundation has developed a model that works for all stake holders.

The Trestle Group has been established to develop a number of programms to assist economic change in developing countries. The programm we are actively engaged with is called Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.

Addleshaw Goddard's first project was to provide legal and business mentoring to a female managing director of an IT company, called Dohatec, in Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh.  Our assistance put in place better business structures ensuring that when Dohatec deals with Western companies, they have proper contracts and memos of understanding, which means that they get paid.

The success of Dohatec means that they are able to retain local people who would otherwise emigrate in search of a living wage. Families stay together and the local community prospers.  Dohatec has grown to over 50 staff and develop products that are being used by the Bangladeshi Government to combat corruption.  It has been calculated that the work that we undertook with the MD of Dohatec positively touched over 300,000 people.

Addleshaw Goddard assisted:

We are proud to be supporting this influential woman in her endeavours and were pleased to be able to use our relationship with Trestle as the basis of our submission to the Lawyer Awards pro bono team of the year 2007.

In July 2007, Dohatec won a contract to provide software for a major Bangladeshi government initiative.  This contract was won against a number of international providers and Addleshaw Goddard wishes Luna and Dohatec every success in bringing this project to life.

We are part of a group of global businesses that are supporting Trestle, including Microsoft - who have adopted the Foundation. We were pleased to discover that Trestle recently presented their model of social philanthropy at the United Nations in New York, where the firm was recognised as a contributor.

In October 2007, Addleshaw Goddard joined with Trestle once again on a new project to support a woman entrepreneur in Kenya to develop an IT training company that has the ambition to create 18,000 female IT experts over the next three years. If this is achieved the GDP of Kenya is estimated to improve by 3.5%.  We will be tracking the progress of this new project on the CSR website.  

Founded in 2005 and based in Zurich, Trestle Group Foundation is an innovative, change-provoking, non-profit organization dedicated to creating and expanding sustainable economic opportunities in developing economies by directly supporting emerging entrepreneurs.

Developed by a dynamic team of entrepreneurs and international business professionals with the belief that entrepreneurship fuels the engine that drives economic and social change, the foundation mission is to empower entrepreneurs in developing economies by directly connecting them with established business professionals who provide critical “human capital” – coaching, mentoring, legal advice, marketing support, access to networks, resources and international markets – needed to fulfill potential and ensure long-term success. Learn more www.trestlegroupfoundation.org

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