Aim
The HCA abc-Foundation was established by the Bikuben Foundation in April 2004 in connection with the worldwide celebration of the 2005 Hans Christian Andersen bicentenary. The HCA abc Foundation is to address illiteracy worldwide. Special emphasis will be given to children, young women, and ethnical minorities in developing countries.

The foundation will also support special projects within education, such as teacher's training, schooling, exchange programmes, symposiums, and individual projects that enhance professional skills.

Illiteracy
Illiteracy is a widespread global problem, and the inability to read and write is a principal cause of poverty, along with hunger, war, and disease. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, there are approximately one billion illiterates worldwide of which 15 percent are children. In a world increasingly dependant on communication survival has become more difficult for those who cannot read and write. The Bikuben Foundation has founded the HCA-abc Foundation to address this major global social issue.

Associating the promotion of literacy with Hans Christian Andersen is based on the following:

1) Hans Christian Andersen is one of the world's most read authors.
2) Andersen's values and his universal and archetypical tales of power, love, faith, hate, life, and death are vital to the development of a tolerant mindset among world citizens.
3) You need to read and write to access Andersen's enchanted world.

Furthermore, the HCA-abc Foundation seeks to secure an appropriate and lasting legacy for the 2005 Hans Christian Andersen bicentenary.

The Andersen bicentenary will host a great many events and activities related to Andersen, and therefore it is only natural to seek to establish a permanent platform from which to address illiteracy in the name of the Hans Christian Andersen.

Strategic partners
To generate funds for the humanitarian cause, the HCA-abc Foundation has entered a formal partnership with the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation to exploit the commercial opportunities represented by the 2005 Hans Christian Andersen bicentenary.

All companies wishing to exploit the official logo of the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation or that of the HCA-abc Foundation must pay royalties to the HCA-abc Foundation of the products carrying the logo. Agreements have already been forged with a number of Danish companies and more are on the way.

These corporate partners will help support the aims of the HCA-abc Foundation in initiating new projects or supporting existing programmes to address global illiteracy.

The HCA-abc Foundation will forge close ties with existing humanitarian organisation in addressing illiteracy. The Foundation has already entered close dialogue with Unicef and UNESCO, and several other organisations will be involved in the near future.

The HCA-abc Foundation is furthermore to initiate own new projects in addressing illiteracy.

Background
With a unique donation of DKK 80 million, the Bikuben Foundation enjoys exclusive partnership in relation to the 2005 Hans Christian Andersen bicentenary. The Bikuben Foundation extends this exclusivity to the HCA-abc Foundation.

Se also: http://www.andersenabc.org