ABN AMRO and the Esther Vergeer Foundation to continue their successful partnership

The bank has been working towards equal opportunities in sport for many years as part of its ‘Banking for better, for generations to come’ purpose. Together with the Esther Vergeer Foundation, ABN AMRO is helping children with a physical disability and/or chronic condition to discover their own potential through sport. Thanks to the Esther Vergeer Foundation, these children can take part in a sport every week at a sports club close to their own home. They make friends, their confidence grows and they feel more able to take their place in society. The bank shares and endorses this mission:

Sander Bestevaar, Head of Partnerships, Events & Foundations at ABN AMRO: “We know that sport makes people happier, healthier and more successful. This is why we want to encourage children in the Netherlands with a disability to participate in sport. Every child deserves to experience the power of sport. The past few years have shown us that we can make a real difference by working together. So we are happy to continue along this path in the years to come.”

“Thanks to ABN AMRO, we’ve been able to develop numerous great projects that have given hundreds of children a positive chance to learn a sport. Sport not only makes you physically and mentally stronger, it also increases your independence and coping abilities,” says Esther Vergeer, founder of the Esther Vergeer Foundation.

Sport Festival

The ABN AMRO Open tennis tournament takes place in February. The Sport Festival, organised together with the Esther Vergeer Foundation in Ahoy Rotterdam, has become a regular feature of the tournament. The aim of this sports and games-packed day is to allow children with a physical disability and/or chronic condition to meet each other and experience the power of sport. At the festival, children can take on elite sportsmen and women, attend sports clinics and enjoy top-class tennis matches (including wheelchair tennis). Children who want to carry on with a sport after the festival, but who cannot afford it or have trouble organising the logistics, can ask for help from the Esther Vergeer Foundation.

Parents and children can sign up for the Esther Vergeer Foundation Sport Festival free of charge by clicking this link: https://esthervergeerfoundation.nl/activiteiten/sportfestival-2024/

High-impact partnership

Over the past few years, ABN AMRO and the Esther Vergeer Foundation have worked together on sports programmes such as ‘De Club van Morgen’ (The Club of Tomorrow), whereby tennis clubs around the Netherlands are given an opportunity to make their club more accessible to children with a disability and to attract more wheelchair tennis players. The bank also supports the Esther Vergeer Foundation sports clinics, which operate in the Netherlands’ university medical centres specialising in children. A consultation at one of these sports clinics is the starting point of a personal coaching path that focuses on the child’s sporting wishes, needs and possibilities. The ultimate aim is to find a suitable sport (and sports club) close to the child’s home.