We attach particular importance to projects that help children and young people. In 2007 we began supporting Die Arche (The Ark; German-language website only), a Munich-based Christian charity for children and adolescents. The initiative, which works with around 400 children and young people from socially disadvantaged families, including refugee children, provides children with hot meals and extra tutoring, organizes leisure activities and offers counseling. WACKER supported The Ark in 2013 and 2014 as well, each time donating €100,000 to the charity. WACKER’s commitment to The Ark goes beyond financial contributions – its employees also spend their free time as volunteers at the annual Ark Summer Festival. The government of Upper Bavaria presented WACKER with its honorary award for outstanding integration work in 2014, recognizing the company’s sustained support of the charity.

WACKER’s support for children and young people at a regional level is not limited to the company’s focus on funding for The Ark. WACKER’s own Burghausen Vocational Training Center (BBiW) accepted eight unaccompanied adolescent refugees from West and Central Africa in its youth guest house in 2014. In addition to intensive German lessons to help them in their new life in Germany, these young people are also taking an integration class at the Mühldorf vocational school. Their goal here is to obtain the diploma they need in order to begin vocational training.