"A stimulus for change"

Pets are good for people in many respects. Because this fact has already been scientifically demonstrated on a number of occasions, countless initiatives have already sprung up across Europe aimed at improving the coexistence of pets and the people they love. Behind most of these ideas are committed, socially aware individuals, who came up with a good idea based on their work with animals and then spontaneously acted on it. However, what nearly all of them lack is money and a network of contacts to drive their initiative forward. 
Against this background, the pet food manufacturer Nestlé Purina PetCare has created the Europe-wide BetterwithPets Award, worth 100 000 Swiss francs, to seek out innovations that are focused on enriching the lives of pets and people. The company worked on this project with the independent Ashoka Institution, which is considered a pioneer in the field of social entrepreneurship. 
Bernard Meunier, CEO of Nestlé Purina PetCare in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EMENA), conceived the award, for which the application platform was set up in March of this year. 102 applications were received from all over Europe, with huge interest being registered in Greece, the Netherlands and Great Britain in particular. After the number of applications was whittled down to ten by chosen employees of the company in the first round and these were examined by a jury in the second round, five finalists were given the opportunity to present their projects during the Purina BetterwithPets forum in La Mola, close to Barcelona. 

The winner of the award was the OOPOEH Foundation from the Netherlands, which received 40 000 Swiss francs for its initiative. OOPOEH is the acronym for the rather unwieldy project name Opa's en Oma's Passen Op Een Huisdier, which aims to increase the social interaction and physical activity of older people by arranging for them to care for dogs in their neighbourhood. Sofia Brouwer, who established the foundation, was overjoyed, stressing that the award "will help us to increase the social influence of our initiative". Bernard Meunier warmly congratulated Sofia Brouwer "on her efforts, on the award-winning presentation, which captured the essence of the initiative, and on her commitment to pets and society". 

Since the jury was very impressed with the presentations of the other four finalists also, these each received 15 000 Swiss francs for their "outstanding efforts". They included another Dutch…