The Radisson Blu Alcron Hotel in Prague which has been awarded the Green Key since 2012 impresses with a project that benefits socially disadvantaged children and adolescents in the Czech Republic.

The hotel is working in close cooperation with an orphanage in the outskirts of the Czech capital by giving young people the chance to look behind the scene of the five-star hotel, with the prospect of getting an employment in their business afterwards. During the project, the adolescents get to know different activity areas in the hotel, and if they get curious about working in the hospitality sector there is the opportunity for them to undertake a training to become an employee.

Zuzana Varmuzova, Training Manager of the Radisson Blu Alcron Hotel and appointed Environmental Manager for the Green Key award says that their business started this project to support the local youth instead of donating to charity organisations in other countries. Although they would only help a small number of young people, Zuzana explains that for the individual youngster this initiative can be far more live changing than a financial donation to an external organisation.

Besides the project with the orphanage, the hotel organised a charity dinner in cooperation with the organisation "Dobry Andel" – Good Angel that helps families with kids that suffer from cancer. The dinner took place in the hotel’s own Michelin-starred restaurant ‘Alcron’. In Zuzana’s opinion, offering their guests indirect ways to financially contribute to a social project would be more effective than directly asking for money. “Today, people ask you for donations everywhere, we had the feeling that people are tired of being asked for money” she points out during the interview.

Another project that follows the same idea is the yearly ‘wish tree’, a Christmas tree set up in the hotel where guests can leave a present for the children in the orphanage. Like this, Zuzana says, the guests would know exactly where their money is going.

If you would like to learn more about the Radisson Blu Alcron Hotel please visit the hotel's website here