When Haakon and Mette-Marit married in 2001, they set up a foundation, and asked for gifts to be given to the foundation. The Norwegian government contributed to the foundation as a wedding present, with one Norwegian kr. per inhabitant in Norway. In total, the foundation received close to six mil. Norwegian kr in connection with the wedding.
The humanitarian foundation supports both projects in Norway and abroad.
It has become tradition for the foundation and the couple, to have their wedding day as the day when gifts from the foundation are given out. The recipients usually tie in with the causes the Crown Princely couple supports, such as the fight against racism, troubled youths, preventing AIDS or similar causes.
Last year the gift from the foundation went to Fundación Xochiquetzal in Nicaragua.
This year, it is sticking a bit closer to home. “Be Proud” (Vær stolt) a project dedicated to fighting racism in Holmlia, a borough in Oslo, received part of the money for 2009. The other part went to HYWA in Bærum, a youth organization against violence, racism and narcotics.
In the award ceremony, Mette-Marit said:
“The two projects that receive the funds for this year, have chosen to meet the challenges by letting youth work together to strenghten the local societies.”
Article in Norwegian from Aftenposten, including picture.
Thanks for the royal report, although I find it a bit hard to understand why Holmlia and Bærum were chosen this time.
Not really known as ‘difficult’ neightbourhoods (on the contrary I’d say) I wonder why these two ’causes’ were awarded now.
Holmlia has had an increased problem with racism in the past years, including the murder of Benjamin Hermansen around the time MM was engaged to Haakon.