Johan Schotte

The mission of the Johan Schotte Foundation is to contribute to a lasting measurable impact in improving the human condition on the planet by fostering peace through education and innovation.

The mission of the Johan Schotte Foundation finds its origins in my early Christian upbringing both at home, in boarding school, and hospitals, from the age of 6 to 18. Although I was active since age 6 in assisting the charity projects initiated by the priests at school, such as my classmates and I selling coffee from Tanzania to help the country stand on its legs after gaining independence, my main inspiration was at home where both of my dear and saintly parents – Alberic Schotte & Gilberte Lecoutere – lived an active harmonious life turned towards and attentive to the needs of their neighbours in total contentment, bliss, and joy. They expressed this in private by the multiple charitable works, acts, and gestures they supported daily, in addition to leading inspiring and internationally successful active professional lives in sports and finance. The private nature of their philanthropic inclinations, commitments, and engagements were vetted by their unshakable belief that anonymous gifts are the most precious kind since they both believed that God, their creator, knows each of his children’s acts and intentions even before they actually happen.

Ever since I ventured on my own in selecting charitable and philanthropic projects close to my heart, I discovered that I have been blessed with different talents which dealt more with international outreach, organisation, and advocacy as opposed to my parents being actively and physically involved with their nearest neighbours. Adding to that my widely varied interest in myriad of topics and my experience gained in many industries and in many countries in different continents of the globe via the enlightened understanding afforded to me by wonderful and wise mentors, and it became unavoidably apparent that the most effective way forward for me was to incorporate and get organised in order to be able to add an element of quantity to the quality of the philanthropic legacy started by my parents.