COMMUNITY AND SOLIDARITY

Combining school holidays and vacations with their daily lives is a major challenge for many parents. Working parents frequently find themselves unable to take leave during school holidays. The local AWO branch at Lahnstein has been offering summer camps for local children at reasonable prices for over 50 years. The camps take place at the Aspich facility in Lahnstein.

The donation goes towards a new aerial runway for children to enjoy themselves during the pleasant summer months.

Christiane-Herzog school, which is part of the Heinrich-Haus in Engers, will be the beneficiary of the donation. This is a full-day school that focuses on supporting children in the development of motor skills. Children and adolescents with physical disabilities are able to participate almost completely in social life.

The facility also offers various sports activities, such as an e-wheel-chair hockey group or a climbing group. These activities require particular effort and organisation and can only be realised with financial assistance.

School children with physical limitations are in many cases only able to take advantage of certain educational opportunities with cost-intensive media support, for example tablet computers. This donation will support a wide range of important activities for children.

At the “Junior Innovation Camp”, Zschimmer & Schwarz employees and school children together develop an innovative solution for an existing problem or a certain issue. The camp is broken down into two phases: Various workshops give the school children important impetus to prepare for the challenge. They are supported by a Zschimmer & Schwarz expert team that provides insights into the business world, explains the background to topics and tasks and also raises critical questions. The adolescents are then asked to develop a solution for a particular task in a team effort and present their solution to the expert jury of Zschimmer & Schwarz.

The focal point of the “Junior Innovation Camp” is creative and solution-focused thinking. The school children are learning important entrepreneurial and social skills in a short period of time. At the same time, they become attracted to the topic of “chemistry”, and the first contacts with young talents are made.

The project is implemented in collaboration with the “Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln JUNIOR gemeinnützige GmbH” – a non-profit company in Cologne that introduces the next generation to business practices.

According to a study by the DLRG (German Lifesaving Association), more than half of children in primary school cannot swim safely. This entails huge risks – particularly during the summer months. The VfR Niederfell wants to offer special children’s swimming courses that are inclusive and get more children to enjoy swimming: This is an opportunity for all children with and without physical or mental handicaps, as well as for children with a migration background to learn swimming together in a group.

Children will be taught to swim individually and according to their developmental stage in six courses by young coaches. The club wants to prepare the young coaches for future roles as sports teachers in popular sports or rehab sport. They also want to offer a course for female refugees of all ages. Besides being an opportunity to learn how to swim, this is also a step towards greater independence and self-confidence.

The donation will cover the purchase of swimming aids, for example swimming boards, as well as running costs such as the rental of the swimming pool.

The Gymnasium Penig, a private secondary school, wants to expand its existing robotics interest group. The school currently uses LEGO robots, which are however unable to meet the students’ need to gain insights into the world of automation. The school is planning to purchase robots from the Arduino range to meet the increasing demands, especially of its older students. The students have to configure and program the robots themselves. This requires so-called starter kits as well as supplementary components for construction of robots.

The aim of the project is to provide students with insights into processes similar to those in a laboratory that can be mastered on a very simple level. This aims at kindling and promoting the students’ interest in specialised and technical issues. The project will run over a period of three to four years.

Going to university means a period of learning, socialising and exchange. German and international students enrolled in the “Innovative textiles” course at the Münchberg campus of the Hof University of Applied Sciences are to be offered projects that are designed to promote the expertise and skills of young talents and support them in their social integration and the exchange with one another.

The donation will allow this long-term project to purchase new laboratory machines for textiles, equipment items, laboratory devices and consumables as well as support for travel to trade fairs, conferences and social events.

Completing the final legs of our journey here on earth in peace, calmness and dignity is important for all of us. The hospice and palliative services association in Chemnitz assists and accompanies terminally ill patients and their relatives. It offers them a place where the total focus is on their needs.

This project is proposing to create a garden as a place to relax “in mother nature”. Patients may also cultivate their own plants in this “garden of the senses”. The donation will allow the next milestone in the implementation of this project to be achieved.

Despite all preconceptions, chemistry and protecting nature do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. This project seeks to protect the biodiversity of insects in general and bees, wasps and hornets in particular. This project wants to give the employees of the Zschimmer & Schwarz Group the opportunity to become actively involved, take action in protecting nature and train to become a beekeeper.

The donation will support the planting of fruit trees or insect-friendly vegetation at a location still to be determined, the conversion of lawn surfaces into insect-friendly habitats, the installation of insect hotels and the settlement of bee colonies for a small local apiary.

Self-confidence, self-control, finding inner focus: Also called “the way of the empty hand”, Karate disciplines our mind and body. As always in sports, safety comes first – the students should have the best possible learning conditions.

This donation will allow the SKTAN Karate Club in Wissembourg to purchase tatamis, which are special martial arts mats. For children in particular, these mats create an environment for safer, easier and better learning.

Project “PizzAut” is an integration workshop for autistic young people. Working as a team and closely monitored by hospitality experts and rehabilitation professionals, they are tasked with opening and running a pizza restaurant.

Too often, autistic people are excluded from a working life and the social environment – a situation that can be changed with the right care, sensitivity and support.

In the first phase of the workshop, the students will have opportunity to work on learning methods for independence and motivation and to find an assignment within the project that is most suitable for them together with psychologists and pedagogues. The pizza restaurant will be a place for families and young people to take a break, socialise, feel at ease and, away from our hectic and fast-paced world, enjoy some great food with friends.

The donation supports the project of the first pizzeria, 70% of which will be run by autistic young people. The pizzeria will open in April 2020.

Initiated by Enrico Allara, the “Bear’s Travels” project supports handicapped people in travelling independently. The aim of the project is to enable handicapped people as well as their family and friends to choose from a special selection of travel destinations, rehabilitation courses, sport programmes and seminars for finding internal balance (on request).

To make these travels possible, the donation will go towards the purchase of a split-level camping vehicle. This will allow handicapped people – in combination with routes to facilities specifically designed for them – to go on individualized journeys.

FENIX is a charity that assists people and the community. The organisation’s 35 volunteers have a wide range of backgrounds in areas of speciality that support this project.

The “Volunteers 118” are volunteers who specialise in first aid, the transport of injured people in emergencies such as illness, accidents or natural disasters.

This civil protection unit is composed of volunteer staff who work on hazard prediction and prevention and are on site to assist the community in the event of a natural disaster.

The rescue team specialises in rescuing missing persons trapped under debris or in the open with its rescue dogs.

This donation will go towards the purchase of a multi-function vehicle the volunteers can use to quickly transport rescue dogs and their handlers to lifesaving missions.

The school project of Laboratorio di Scienze e Chimica I.C. in Valenza aims to facilitate access to science for school children by means of illustrative experiments and research. Practical training allows young talents to be introduced to the scientific methodology. The focus is on joint discovery and experience rather than on rigid rote learning – we can learn from our mistakes, and only those who ask questions will acquire new knowledge.

The donation will go towards the purchase of tools and materials for the school laboratory. The focus is once again on benefits in daily life – all materials are also suitable for household use and therefore relate directly to natural phenomena, chemical reactions, science and daily life.

Suggested by Rosa Carda, the submitted project will support people like her daughter, who suffers from the rare autoimmune disease known as scleroderma and Raynaud syndrome, which often accompanies this disease.

Scleroderma is a chronic hardening and constriction of the skin and the connective tissue, which can also affect organs and other areas of the body. Raynaud syndrome is a disease of the blood vessels. In times of stress or low temperatures, the blood vessels in the fingers and toes are constricted, which causes a throbbing or tingling sensation when the blood flow resumes. In serious cases, lesions or tissue necrosis may occur.

This donation will support the Scleroderma Association. The Association’s objective is to improve the physical and psychological quality of life of people suffering from this condition and offer them appropriate therapy.