Levi Strauss has stepped up its support for Gypsy communities in eastern Europe by supporting the first Romany radio station in the region.
The jeans and clothing manufacturer has provided around $10,000 (£7000) to help set up the Radio C community station in Hungary – and says it will consider longer-term funding now that the station has won a licence to broadcast for seven years.
Levis has deliberately aligned itself with the Gypsy community over the past few years in a region where prejudice against Romanies is widespread.
Zoltan Valcsicsak, European community affairs manager for Levi Strauss Europe, said the company wanted to ‘take a leadership role on racism’ in the region.
‘In some ways, given the level of prejudice against the Romany population, it’s a risky strategy, but it’s also the right thing to do,’ he said. ‘We have basically been the only corporate to fund Romany projects and because we are often operating in countries where good corporate citizenship is not common we are acting as ground breakers to some extent.’
Valcsicsak said Radio C was as much about setting an example to other companies as about providing financial help to the project itself.
‘It’s not really about the money we have provided, but rather about the visible support and approval that we have given to the venture,’ he said.
He added that Levi Strauss would advertise on the radio station to encourage other businesses to view the Gypsy population – which makes up 10 per cent of Hungary’s population – as an important market.
Valcsicsak said he had seen little evidence of the company’s approach generating hostility, although questions about it had been raised within the company.
Levi Strauss began supporting Gypsy communities in Hungary and the Czech Republic, where it has significant business operations, in the late 1990s, but is also now looking to provide help in Poland.
Among a number of projects it has provided financial support for is Hungary’s Autonomia Foundation, a Gypsy organization that tries to counter high unemployment rates among Romanies by providing training, set-up advice, grants and low interest loans to would-be entrepreneurs.
It has given money to a Gypsy high school in Hungary and helped set up the Centre for Independent Journalism in Budapest, which trains 15 young Romanies each year to work in the media, where Romanies are under represented.
The company has also begun to support debating societies across eastern Europe run by the US-based International Debate Education Association, which brings together Gypsies and others to talk about racism.
In all Levi Strauss has spent around $500,000 in eastern Europe supporting various Gypsy projects, including $200,000 on the Autonomia Foundation.
The company gives around $15.8m annually to charities in over 40 countries around the world.