Világszép Alapítvány
Ágnes and Albrecht Wirtz didn't just open the gates of Villa Bagatelle in 2010. That same year, they also created the Világszép Foundation (Beautiful World Foundation), where they work to help children who are often the victims of extreme prejudice: the 24,000 children today in Hungary who do not live with their parents, but with foster parents or in children's homes.
The Világszép Alapítvány provides these children with individual attention, acceptance and love with the help of camps, mentors, storytelling, careers and crisis management programmes, not to mention the inclusive Pendula Kindergarten and Létra Klub. Since the very start, the foundation's mission has been to show children who grow up away from their parents that the world is beautiful and full of opportunity for everyone, including them. Today, the foundation has developed into an active and diverse team, with 26 employees and 72 volunteers working hard to identify the needs of and form long term connections with individual children.
Because we believe that one child is the whole world.
Villa Bagatelle regularly works in partnership with the foundation in a number of different:
Charity gingerbread
Thanks to our sales – among our customers – of 'charity gingerbread', an initiative we began ten years ago, we have been able to make Christmas wishes come true for a total of 1,100 children. Hand in hand with the foundation, every year we gather the wishes of children living in orphanages, write them on gingerbread and place them on the Christmas trees in our businesses – our customers can't wait to work out which wishes they will help come true! All of the presents are delivered to the children's homes in time for Christmas.
Children's festivals
Our loyal customers and the foundation's team are able to get together at the spring Strawberry Festival and the autumn Apple Festival, where the experts and young volunteers of the Világszép Alapítvány have for years organised all the children's activities, from live storytelling to team-building exercises.
Career Programme
As part of our common initiative, the Career Programme, nine young mentors have already had the opportunity to gain professional experience in one of the businesses and workshops of Bagatelle Budapest. Just for example, one mentored child came to our confectionery workshop as part of their vocational training, while we also had a mentored colleague working full-time at Bagatelle Mom Park, who had the chance to learn the tasks of a bartender and be a valuable part of our team for a year and a half.
Cooking together and Gasztro Műhely
Our baker and confectioner László Csák, head chef Tamás Nagy and our other colleagues often cook together with young people at the camps organised by the foundation in the village of Paloznak.
Since 2019, our chef has also hosted food-related activities at the foundation's Létra Klub (Ladder Club) for children and young adults.
You can read more about the foundation here.