Home 
Options is in central Myanmar with de la Frégonnière for two days to observe the CCF’s activities in this part of the world. Previously, the CCF had flown under the radar — even de la Frégonnière admits people are often surprised to hear of the foundation’s existence — precisely because the intention was to achieve some form of results before publicising its activities. The CCF, which was established in 2012, functions independently of Cartier’s commercial interests, and is managed by a separate team headed by de la Frégonnière. Buoyed by an endowment fund (the value of which Cartier will not disclose), the team has full autonomy to manage budgets and allocate resources to charities and programmes it deems fit — in the case of Myanmar, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects. The CCF is the maison’s latest effort in giving back to the community, says Grégoire Blanche, Cartier’s regional managing director, Southeast Asia and Oceania. “We’ve done the [charity] galas. We’ve done the limited edition pieces where we give a percentage of the proceeds back to charities. We’ve also done the celebrity endorsements. But ultimately, we always felt uneasy at some point. The next logical step was to ensure that whatever decisions were made would be made without the influence of the commercial side of the business. This is part of our maison’s culture, of pushing the boundaries of what we do.” Blanche reiterates that the CCF is less keen on publicity than it is to focus on the tasks at hand. “The motivation is not one of communication, or of buying ourselves a conscience. When we talk of philanthropy and of being a patron, in our view you don’t need to communicate it. It’s a genuine responsibility that we have and recognise, and if we do it, as with everything we do, we want to do it well.” Part of doing the job well was to get de la Frégonnière on board. She joined in July 2013 and leads a team of four, who have decades of international NGO experience between them, from the CCF’s office in Geneva. However, she spends part of the year travelling to the world’s most impoverished regions to meet with beneficiaries and to determine the success rate of the projects. A life less ordinary
De la Frégonnière admits she never envisioned herself being so involved in humanitarian work. Her interest was kindled in university, where as a journalism/ communications undergraduate, she was given the opportunity to do an internship at the UN. “One thing led to another, and from being in the UN headquarters in New York, to attending major international conferences that tackled tough topics, I felt I was part of something greater,” she says. From there, she started working with Unicef, spending two years in Barbados. Back in New York, she met and married her Italian-born husband — from whom she is now separated — and shortly after, they transferred to Somalia. When Mogadishu became too dangerous, the couple moved to Nairobi, and de la Frégonnière started thinking about where her life was heading. She could have opted for a regular communications job, but she relished the thought of waking up with a sense of purpose every day and being able to tackle some of the world’s problems. “Not that I was going to succeed,” she concedes. “But at least I had to try.”
Over two days, we visited three of the 27 villages where the IFRC is working to improve during the three-year WASH Programme: Kan Thar, Makyi Pin Thar and Kyar Pwar. They are remote — each a two- or three-hour drive from our base in Bagan, the popular tourist destination renowned for its plethora of thousand year- old temples and ruins. We ride in a convoy of three vehicles, together with the crew from the IFRC, who have been carrying out infrastructure improvements — building wells, pipelines, storage tanks, hydraulic pumps and latrines — over the past year. De la Frégonnière points out that it is key for the IFRC team to get the local communities involved in the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure, so as to empower them and give them ownership of the projects. The villages comprise around 200 to 300 inhabitants each, of which about 10 volunteers form a village- level WASH committee. It is the responsibility of the committee to maintain the facilities, organise regular meetings and report the details to officials at the township level. While the village set-ups were all different — some had school facilities while others did not, for instance — a common thread was that the water and sanitation systems brought much relief to the inhabitants. Speaking through interpreters, we gleaned that their lives had improved significantly. Where many of them had to fetch water from distant sources, today they have water within the village limits. The IFRC’s aim is to install water points no further than 400m from each household. Contrast this with the daily 2km or 3km trek that villagers had to make prior, all while carrying gallons of water in 30ºC heat (it gets hotter in the dry season), and the difference becomes obvious. The time and energy saved as a result has allowed the villagers to devote more time to working on the farms, and hence earn more income. Many of them are paid daily wages for work such as clearing of fields or harvesting of crops. “It’s making trips like this, meeting the team on the ground, and seeing the actual beneficiaries, that keeps me motivated,” says de la Frégonnière. Decisive action
But how does she decide which charities to fund? “There are five fundamental questions we ask,” comes the reply. “What are the needs of the community that we’re going to work in? What is the right solution for this community, and what do we need to do to make that happen? How much is it going to cost? If we do it, is it going to be sustainable? And finally, what are the risks involved? Because nothing goes without risks. However the only ROI [return on investment] we seek are social improvements. And then I present my case to the Board. “When we look at organisations, this is where my background comes in handy. If I look at water and sanitation issues, I know who the good ones are. Then I look at how an organisation wants to roll out a project. The project has to run in tandem with the government’s social objectives, otherwise it all falls apart once funding stops. Reputation is very important too. I don’t want to support an organisation that could tarnish the reputation of Cartier in any way,” de la Frégonnière states. Blanche adds: “The most valuable contribution that we’re making is putting Cartier’s name on those projects. That’s why it is so important for us to make sure that when it is done, it is done so with the utmost level of scrutiny and seriousness that we apply to anything else we do. The Cartier name also helps generate awareness on a number of key topics. For us, it’s where the biggest contribution is made, and that’s why we wanted to ensure that Pascale and the team were seasoned professionals in their field.” Besides chronicling developments in the luxury watch industry, Aaron De Silva also runs The Time Traveller SG on Instagram (@thetimetravellersg) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/thetimetravellersg) This article appeared in the Options of Issue 753 (Nov 7) of The Edge Singapore.
