Focus on sustainability and children

Focus on sustainability and children: FUCHS provides EUR 50,000 in sponsor-ship for twelve social projects in Mannheim
FUCHS SE, which operates globally in the lubricants industry, awarded the FUCHS Sponsorship Award for the twenty-fourth time on October 26, 2023. A total of EUR 50,000 will benefit a dozen projects in the company’s home city. First-time patron is Christian Specht, the new Lord Mayor of Mannheim.
"In recent years, the FUCHS Sponsorship Award has already enabled many exemplary pro-jects, e. g. for children, senior citizens, migrants or people with physical or mental disabilities in our city," praises Lord Mayor Specht and emphasizes: "I find the approach of concentrating on smaller associations and initiatives, sustainable ideas and innovations particularly exciting." According to Stefan Fuchs, Chairman of the Executive Board of FUCHS SE, this focus enables funding that is particularly well suited to local needs. "With the selection of our projects this year, we were able to address a wide range of currently important topics," says Fuchs.
Almost 40 associations and initiatives applied, twelve of which were selected. The size of the donations granted is not an indication of the quality of the initiative, but reflects the amount re-quired and requested for implementing the project.
This year, many associations and initiatives applied for the first time. Children and young peo-ple were a particular focus. "We also consider the work carried out by young people from Mannheim tending the war graves at the main cemetery absolutely worthy of support. Unfortu-nately, this issue is more topical than ever in these times of war," says Stefan Fuchs. This makes it even more important to keep this remembrance alive. With the initiative of “Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge” (German War Graves Commission), young people come into contact with war graves and individual fates and can develop a deeper understanding of the importance of peace and the culture of remembrance.
In selecting the projects, attention was also paid to the problems of older people facing illness or isolation, for example, and to work against discrimination and the needs of people in dis-tress. Once again, there is one special prize each for a particularly innovative and a pioneering sustainability project.
The award for „Project of the Year – Sustainability” went to "Foodsharing Mannheim – gegen Lebensmittelverschwendung e.V.". With the aim of preventing food waste, the association has set up "fairteiler" distribution points at seven locations in Mannheim. These are publicly acces-sible shelves that can often be accessed around the clock where people can deposit and col-lect food. Due to their popularity and the wear this causes, the “fairteiler” distribution points need to be regularly repaired and cleaned. The funding is intended for a thorough restoration and upgrade of these distribution points.

The award for “Project of the Year – Innovation” went to “Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V. Mannheim” for its initiative "Reading dogs – dog-aided reading support for primary school children in Mannheim". Around a quarter of all fourth graders in Germany have reading problems and do not meet the minimum standard for reading comprehension required to lay the foundation for participating in society and achieving success at school and in the workplace. Following good experience with visits by trained dog-and-handler teams to kindergartens, primary school chil-dren in deprived areas of Mannheim will now also be able to read aloud to friendly dogs one-on-one in a relaxed atmosphere, increasing their learning success. The funding will also fi-nance PR work for finding and training more dog-and-handler teams.
Music to accompany this year’s award ceremony will be provided by “Piya – Im Duo”. The young artist, a graduate of Mannheim's “Popakademie”, makes music that is "somewhere be-tween chanson, jazz, indie, and pop", creating her own world and her very own genre.